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MINNESOTA AND DACOTAIl : 



IN 



IJttters hsapto 0{ a tor llpuglj i\t Prtlr-cilest, 



IN THE AUTUMN OF 1856. 



INFORMATION RELATIVE TO PUBLIC LANDS, 



A TABLE OF STATISTICS. 



By C. C. ANDREWS, 

COUNSELLOR AT LAW; EDITOR OF THE OFFICIAL OPINIONS OF THE ATTORNEYS GENERAL 
OF THE UNITED STATES. 



" From the forests and the prairies. 
From the great lakes of the Northland, 
From the laud of the Ojibways, 
From the land of the Dacotahs." 

Longfellow. 



WASHINGTON: 
ROBERT FARNHAM. 

1857. 






Entered, according to act of Congress, in the j^ear 1857, by 

C. C. ANDREWS, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, in and 



for the District of Columbia. 



PUIL.VDELPHIA : 
STEREOTVPED BY E. B. MEARS. 
PRINTED BY C. SHERMAN i SON. 



THESE 



"Mbml <#onb gaorbs" 



RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED 



YOUNG MEN OF MINNESOTA. 



1» 



INTRODUCTION. 



The object of publishing these letters can be very 
briefly stated. 

Durinor the last autumn I made a tour into 
Minnesota, upwards of a hundred and thirty miles 
north-west of St. Paul, to satisfy myself as to the 
character and prospects of the territory. All I 
could learn from personal observation, and other- 
wise, concerning its society and its ample means 
of greatness, impressed me so favorably as to the 
advantages still open to the settler, that I put down 
in the form of letters such facts as I thought would 
be of general interest. Since their publication — in 
the Boston Post — a few requests, which I could not 
comply with, were made for copies of them all. I 
was led to believe, therefore, that if I revised them 
and added information relative to unoccupied lands, 
the method of preemption, and the business interests 
of the territory, they would be worthy of publication 
in a more permanent form. Conscious that what I 

a) 



Vlll INTRODUCTION. 

have written is an inadequate description of that 
splendid domain, I shall be happy indeed to have 
contributed, in ever so small a degree, to advance 
its growth and welfare. 

Here I desire to acknowledge the aid which has 
been readily extended to my* undertaking by the 
Delegate from Minnesota — Hon. Henry M. Rice — 
whose faithful and unwearied services — I will take 
the liberty to add — in behalf of the territory, merit 
the highest praise. I am also indebted for valuable 
information to Earl S. Goodrich, Esq., editor of 
the Daily Pioneer (St. Paul) and Democrat. 

In another place I give a list of the works which 
I have had occasion to consult or refer to. 

C. C. Andrews. 

Washington, January 1, 1857. 



LIST OF WORKS 

WHICH HAVE BEEN CONSULTED OR REFERRED TO IN THE PRE- 
PARATION OF THIS WORK. 

Expedition to the Sources of the Mississippi, by Major Z. M. Pike. 
1 vol. Philadelphia : 1807. 

Travels to the Source of the Missouri River, by Captains Lewis 
and Clarke. 3 vols. London : 1815. 

Expedition to the Source of the St. Peter's River, Lake Winnepelc, 
&c., under command of Major Stepuex H. Long. 2 vols. Philadel- 
phia: 1824. 

British Dominions in North America. By Joseph Bouchette, 
Esq. 3 vols. London: 1832. 

History of the Colonies of the British Empire. By R. M. Martin, 
Esq. London : 1843. 

Report on the Hydrographica.l Basin of the Upper Mississippi, by 
J. N. Nicollet. Senate Document 237, 2d Session, 26th Congress. 
Washington : 1843. 

Report of an Exploration of the Territory of Minnesota, by Brevet 
Captain John Pope, Corps Topographical Engineers. Senate Docu- 
ment 42, 1st Session, 31st Congress. Washington : 1850. 

Sketches of Minnesota. By E. S. Seymocr. New York: 1850. 

Report on Colonial and Lake Trade, by Israel D. Andrews, Con- 
sul General of the United States for the British Provinces. Executive 
Document 112, 1st Session, 32d Congress. Washington: 1852. 

History of the Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi River. 
By J. G. Shea. New York : 1852. 

Minnesota and its Resources. By J. Wesley Bond. New York : 
1853. 

Discovery of the Sources of the Mississippi River. By Henry R. 
Schoolcraft. Philadelphia: 1855. 

Exploration and Surveys for a Railroad Route from the Mississippi 
River to the Pacific Ocean, made under the direction of the Secretary 
of War in 1853-4, (including Reports of Gov. Stevens and others.) 
Washington: 1855. 

The Emigrant's Guide to Minnesota. By an Old Resident. 1 vol. 
St. Anthony: 1856. 

(9) 



CONTENTS. 



LETTER I. Baltimore to Chicago. paqe 

Anecdoto of a preacher — Monopoly of seats in the cars — Deten- 
tion in the night — Mountain scenery on the Baltimore and 
Ohio Railroad — Voting in the cars — Railroad refreshments — 
Political excitement — The Virginian and the Fremonters — A 
walk in Columbus — Indianapolis — Lafayette — Michigan City 
— Chicago 17 

LETTER IL Chicago to St. Paul. 
Railroads to the Mississippi — Securing passage on the steam- 
boat — The Lady Franklin — Scenery of the Mississippi — Has- 
tings — Growth of settlements 28 

LETTER IIL City of St. Paul. 
First settlement of St. Paul — Population — Appearance of the 
city — Fuller House — Visitors — Roads — Minneapolis — St. An- 
thony — Suspension Bridge 35 

LETTER IV. The Bar. 
Character of the Minnesota bar — Effect of connecting land busi- 
ness with practice — Courts — Recent legislation of Congress as 
to the territorial judiciary — The code of practice — Practice in 
land cases — Chances for lawyers in the West — Charles O'Con- 
nor — Requisite qualifications of a lawyer — The power and 

(11) 



XU CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

usefulness of a great lawyer — Talfourd's character of Sir Wil- 
liam Follett — Blending law with politics — Services of lawyers 
in deliberative assemblies ....... 41 

LETTER V. St. Paul to Crow Wing in Two Days. 
Stages — Roads — Rum River — Indian treaty — Itasca — Sauk Ra- 
pids — "Watab at midnight — Lodging under difficulties — Little 
Rock River — Character of Minnesota streams — Dinner at Swan 
River — Little Falls — Fort Ripley — Arrival at Crow Wing 58 

LETTER YL The Town op Crow "Wing. 
Scenery — First settlement of Crow Wing — Red Lake Indians — 
Mr. Morrison — Prospects of the town — Upper navigation — Mr. 
Beaulieu — Washington's theory as to Norfolk — Observations 
on the growth of towns 65 

LETTER VII. Chippewa Indians. — Hole-in-the-day. 
Description of the Chippewa tribes — Their habits and customs — 
Mission at Gull Lake — Progress in farming — Visit to Hole-in- 
the-day — His enlightened character — Reflections ou Indian 
character, and the practicability of their civilization — Their 
education — Mr. Manypenny's exertions . . . .72 

LETTER VIII. Lumbering Interests. 
Lumber as an element of wealth — Quality of Minnesota lumber — 
Locality of its growth — The great pineries — Trespasses on 
government land — How the lumbermen elude the government 
— Value of lumber — Character of the practical lumberman — 
Transportation of lumber on rafts 82 

LETTER IX. Shores op Lake Superior. 
Description of the country around Lake Superior — Minerals — 
Locality of a commercial city — New land districts — Buchanan 
— Ojibeway — Explorations to the sources of the Mississippi — 
Henry R. Schoolcraft — M. Nicollet's report — Resources of the 
country above Crow "Wing ... .... 90 

LETTER X. Valley of the Red River op the North. 

Climate of Minnesota — The settlement at Pembina — St. Joseph 

— Col. Smith's expedition — Red River of the North — Fur trade 



CONTENTS. XIU 

PAGE 

— Red River Settlement — The Hudson's Bay Company — Ex- 
Gov. Ramsey's observations — Dacotah .... 100 

LETTER Xr. The true Pioneer. 
Energy of the pioneer — Frontier life — Spirit of emigration — Ad- 
vantages to the farmer in moving West — Advice in regard to 
malting preemption claims — Abstract of the preemption law — 
Hints to the settler — Character and services of the pioneer 114 

LETTER XIL Speculation and Business. 
Opportunities to select farms — Otter Tail Lake — Advantages of 
the actual settler over the speculator — Policy of new states as 
to taxing non-residents — Opportunities to make money — Anec- 
dote of Col. Perkins — Mercantile business — Price of money — 
Intemperance — Education — The free school . . . 126 

LETTER XIIL Crow Wing to St. Cloud. 
Pleasant drive in the stage — Scenery — The past — Fort Ripley 
Ferry — Delay at the Post OflSce — Belle Prairie — A Catholic 
priest — Dinner at Swan River — Potatoes — Arrival atWatab — 
St. Chmd 135 

LETTER XIV. St. Cloud.— The Pacific Trail. 
Agreeable visit at St. Cloud — Description of the place — Causes 
of the rapid growth of towns — Gen. Lowry — The back country 
— Gov. Stevens's report — Mr. Lambert's views — Interesting 
account of Mr. A. W. Tinkham's exploration . . . 141 

LETTER XV. St. Cloud to St. Paul. 
Importance of starting early — Judge Story's theory of early 
rising — Rustic scenery — Horses and mules — Surveyors — Hum- 
boldt — Baked fish — Getting off the track — Burning of hay 
stacks — Supper at St. Anthony — Arrival at the Fuller House 156 

LETTER XVL Progress. 
Rapid growth of the North-West — Projected railroads — Terri- 
torial system of the United States — Inquiry into the cause of 
Western progress — Influence of just laws and institutions — 

Lord Bacon's remark 164 

o 



XIV 



COJs^TENTS. 



The proposed Neav Tburitory of Dacotah. 
Organization of Minnesota as a state — Suggestions as to its 
division — Views of Captain Pope — Character and resources of 
the new territory to be left adjoining — Its occupation by the 
Dacotah Indians — Its organization and name . . .173 



Post Offices and Postmasters 
Land Offices and Land Officers 
Newspapers published in Minnesota 
Table of Distances 
Pre-emption for City or Town Sites 



191 
194 
196 
198 
203 



PART I. 
LETTERS ON MINNESOTA. 



(15) 



MINNESOTA AND DACOTAH. 



LETTER I. 

BALTIMORE TO CHICAGO. 



Anecdote of a preacher — Monopoly of seats in the cars — Detention 
in the night — Mountain scenery on the Baltimore and Ohio Rail- 
road — Voting in the cars — Railroad refreshments — Political excite- 
ment — The Virginian and the Fremonters — A walk in Columbus — 
Indianapolis — Lafayette — Michigan City — Chicago. 

Chicago, October, 185G. 
I SIT down at the first place where a pen can be 
used, to give you some account of mj trip to Minne- 
sota. And if any one should complain that this is 
a dull letter, let me retain his good-will by the 
assurance that the things I expect to describe in my 
next will be of more novelty and interest. And 
here I am reminded of a good little anecdote "which 
I am afraid I shall not have a better chance to tell. 
An eminent minister of the Gospel was preaching 
in a new place one Sunday, and about half through 
his sermon when two or three dissatisfied hearers 
got up to leave. "My friends," said he, "I have 
one small favor to ask. As an attempt has been 
made to prejudice my reputation in this vicinity, I 
2* (17) 



18 MINNESOTA AND DACOTAH. 

beg you to be candid enough, if any one asks how 
you liked my sermon, to say you didn't stop to hear 
me through." 

Stepping into the cars on the Baltimore and Ohio 
Kailroad a few evenings ago — for I am not going to 
say anything of my trip further east — I saw as great 
an exhibition of selfishness as one often meets in 
travelling. This was in the rear car, the others be- 
ing all crowded. The seats were spacious, and had 
high backs for night travelling. A gentleman enter- 
ed the car and proposed to sit in a seat in which 
was only one child, but he was informed by a femi- 
nine voice in the rear that the whole seat was taken 
— so he advanced to the next seat, which was occu- 
pied by another child, a boy about eight years old — 
again the same voice, confirmed by one of the other 
sex, informed him in very decided terms that that 
also was wholly occupied. The gentleman of course 
did not attempt to take a seat with this lady, but 
advancing still further, in a seat behind her he saw 
another child the only occupant. His success here 
was no better. The fact was, here was a family 
of a husband, wife, and three children occupying 
five entire seats. The traveller politely asked if 
it would not be convenient for two of the children 
to sit together. " No," said the lady and her hus- 
band (and they spoke together, though they didn't 
sit together), " the children want all the room so as 
to sleep." The traveller betrayed no feeling until 
the husband aforesaid pointed out for him a seat 



BALTIMORE TO CHICAGO. 19 

next to a colored woman who sat alone near the 
door of the car, some little distance off. It was 
quite apparent, and it was the fact, that this 
colored woman was the servant of the family ; and 
the traveller appeared to think that, although as an 
"original question" he might not object to the 
proffered seat, yet it was not civil for a man to 
oifer him what he would not use himself. The 
scene closed by the traveller's taking a seat with 
another gentleman. I mention this incident be- 
cause it is getting to be too common for people to 
claim much more room than belongs to them, and 
because I have seen persons who are modest and 
unused to travelling subjected to considerable annoy- 
ance in consequence. Moreover, conductors are 
oftentimes fishing so much after popularity, that 
they wink at misconduct in high life. 

Somewhere about midnight, along the banks of 
the Potomac, and, if I remember right, near the 
town of Hancock, the cars were detained for three 
hours. A collision had occurred twelve hours before, 
causing an extensive destruction of cars and freight, 
and heavy fragments of both lay scattered over the 
track. Had it not been for the skilful use of a 
steam-engine in dragging off the ruins, we must 
have waited till the sun was up. Two or three large 
fires were kindled with the ruins, so that the scene 
of the disaster was entirely visible. And the light 
shining in the midst of the thick darkness, near the 
river, with the crowd of people standing around, 



20 MINNESOTA AND DACOTAU. 

was not very romantic, perhaps not picturesque — 
but it was quite novel ; and the novelty of the scene 
enabled us to bear with greater patience the gloomy 
delay. 

The mountain scenery in plain sight of the travel- 
ler over the Baltimore and Ohio road is more exten- 
sive and protracted, and I think as beautiful, as on 
any road in the United States. There are as wild 
places seen on the road across Tennessee from Nash- 
ville, and as picturesque scenes on the Pennsylvania 
Central road — perhaps the White Mountains as seen 
from the Atlantic and St. Lawrence road present a 
more sublime view — but I think on the road I speak 
of, there is more gorgeous mountain scenery than on 
any other. On such routes one passes through a 
rude civilization. The settlements are small and 
scattered, exhibiting here and there instances of 
thrift and contentment, but generally the fields are 
small and the houses in proportion. The habits of 
the people are perhaps more original than primitive. 
It was along the route that I saw farmers gathering 
their corn on sleds. The cheerful scene is often 
witnessed of the whole family — father, mother, and 
children — at work gathering the crops. These 
pictures of cottage life in the mountain glens, with 
the beautiful variegated foliage of October for 
groundwork, are objects which neither weary nor 
satiate our sight. 

The practice of taking a vote for presidential 
candidates in the cars has been run into the ground. 



BALTIMORE TO CHTCAliO. 21 

By this I mean that it has been carried to a ridi- 
culous excess. So far I have had occasion to vote 
several times. A man may be indifferent as to 
expressing his vote "vvhen out of his state ; but a 
man's curiosity must have reached a high pitch 
when he travels through a train of cars to inquire 
how the passengers vote. It is not uncommon, I 
find, for people to carry out the joke by voting ^vith 
their real opponents. Various devices are resorted 
to to get a unanimous vote. For example, a man 
will say, " All who are in favor of Buchanan take 
off their boots ; all in favor of Fremont keep them 
on." Again, when there are several passengers on 
a stage-coach out west, and they are passing under 
the limbs of a tree, or low bridge, as they are called, 
it is not unusual for a Fremont man to say, '' All 
in favor of Fremont bow their heads." 

I have a word to say about refreshments on rail- 
road routes. It is, perhaps, well known that the 
price for a meal anywhere on a railroad in the United 
States is fifty cents. That is the uniform price. 
Would that the meals were as uniform ! But alas ! 
a man might as well get a quid of tobacco with his 
money, for he seldom gets a quid pro quo. Once 
in a couple of days' travel you may perhaps get a 
wholesome meal, but as a general thing what you 
get (when you get out of New England) isn't worth 
over a dime. You stop at a place, say for breakfast, 
after having rode all night. The conductor calls 
out, "Twenty minutes for breakfast." There is a 



22 MINNESOTA AND DACOTA II. 

great crowd and a great rush, of course. Well, the 
proprietor expects there will be a crowd, and ought 
to be prepared. But how is it ? Perhaps you are 
lucky enough to get a seat at the table. Then your 
chance to get something to eat is as one to thirteen : 
for as there is nothing of any consequence on the 
table, your luck depends on your securing the ser- 
vices of a waiter who at the same time is being called 
on by about thirteen others as hungry as yourself. 
Then suppose you succeed ! First comes a cup of 
black coffee, strong of water ; then a piece of tough 
fried beef steak, some fried potatoes, a heavy biscuit 
— a little sour (and in fact everything is sour but 
the pickles). You get up when you have finished 
eating — it would be a mockery to say when you have 
satisfied your appetite — and at the door stand two 
muscular men (significantly the proprietor is aware 
of the need of such) with bank bills drawn through 
their fingers, who are prepared to receive your 50c. 
It is not unusual to hear a great deal of indignation 
expressed by travellers on such occasions. No man 
has a right to grumble at the fare which hospitality 
sets before him. But when he buys a dinner at a 
liberal price, in a country where provisions are 
abundant, he has a right to expect something w^hich 
will sustain life and health. Those individuals who 
have the privilege of furnishing meals to railroad 
travellers probably find security in the reflection that 
their patronage does not depend on the will of their 
patrons. But the evil can be remedied by the pro- 



BALTIMORE TO CHICAGO. 23 

prietors and superintendents of the roads, and the 
public will look for a reformation in dinners and 
suppers at their hands. 

I might say that from Benwood, near Wheeling — 
Avhere I arrived at about four in the afternoon, having 
been nearly twenty-four hours coming 375 miles — I 
passed on to Zanesville to spend the night ; thinking 
it more convenient, as it surely was, to go to bed at 
eleven at night and start the next morning at eight, 
than to go to bed at Wheeling at nine, or when I 
chose, and start again at two in the morning. The 
ride that evening was pleasant. The cars were filled 
with lusty yeomen, all gabbling politics. There 
was an overwhelming majority for Fremont. Under 
such circumstances it was a virtue for a Buchanan 
man to show his colors. There was a solid old Vir- 
ginian aboard ; and his open and intelligent counte- 
nance — peculiar, it seems to me, to Virginia — 
denoted that he was a good-hearted man. I was 
glad to see him defend his side of politics with so 
much zeal against the Fremonters. He argued 
against half a dozen of them with great spirit and 
sense. In spite of the fervor of his opponents, 
however, they treated him with proper respect and 
kindness. It was between eleven and twelve when 
I arrived at Zanesville. I hastened to the Stacy 
House with my friend, J. E. B. (a young gentleman 
on his way to Iowa, whose acquaintance I regard it 
as good luck to have made). The Stacy House 
could give us lodgings, but not a mouthful of re- 



24 MINNESOTA AND DACOTAH. 

freshments. As the next best thing, we descended 
to a restaurant, which seemed to be in a very drowsy 
condition, where we soon got some oysters and 
broiled chicken, not however without paying for it 
an exorbitant price. I rather think, however, I 
shall go to the Stacy House again when next I visit 
Zanesville, for, on the whole, I have no fault to find 
with it. Starting at eight the next morning, we 
were four hours making the distance (59 miles) from 
Zanesville to Columbus. The road passes through 
a country of unsurpassed loveliness. Harvest fields, 
the most luxuriant, were everywhere in view. At 
nearly every stopping-place the boys besieged us 
with delicious apples and grapes, too tempting to be 
resisted. We had an hour to spend at Columbus, 
which, after booking our names at the Neil House 
for dinner — and which is a capital house — we partly 
spent in a walk about the city. It is the capital of 
the state, delightfully situated on the Scioto river, 
and has a population in the neighborhood of 20,000. 
The new Capitol there is being built on a scale of 
great magnificence. Though the heat beat down 
intensely, and the streets were dusty, we were " bent 
on seeing the town." We — my friend B. and my- 
self — had walked nearly half a mile down one of 
the fashionable streets for dwellings, when we came 
to a line which was drawn across the sidewalk in 
front of a residence, which, from the appearance, 
might have belonged to one of the upper-ten. The 
line was in charge of two or three little girls, the 



];.\i/n.M!)iiM TO ciiicAiio. 25 

eldest of whom was not over twelve. She Avas a 
bright-eyed little miss, and had in her face a good 
share of that metal which the vulgar think is indis- 
pensable to young lawyers. We came to a gradual 
pause at sight of this novel obstruction. " Bucha- 
nan, Fillmore, or Fremont?" said she, in a tone of 
dogmatical interrogatory. B. was a fervid Fre- 
monter — he probably thought she was — so he ex- 
claimed, " Fremont for ever !" I awaited the sequel 
in silence. "Then you may go round," said the 
little female politician. " You may go round," and 
round w^e went, not a little amused at such an exhi- 
bition of enthusiasm. I remember very w^ell the 
excitement during the campaign of 1840 ; and I did 
my share with the New Hampshire boys in getting 
up decoy cider barrels to humbug the Whigs as they 
passed in their barouches to attend some great con- 
vention or hear Daniel Webster. But it seems to 
me there is much more political excitement during 
this campaign than there was in 1840. Flag-staffs 
and banners abound in the greatest profusion in 
every village. . Every farm-house has some token 
of its politics spread to the breeze. 

At tw^enty minutes past one — less or more — we 
left Columbus, and after travelling 158 miles, via 
Dayton, we came to Indianapolis, the great " Rail- 
road City," as it is called, of the west. It was half 
past nine when we arrived there. I did not have 
time to go up to the Bates House, where I once had 
the pleasure of stopping, but concluded to get sup- 



26 MINNESOTA AND DACOTAH. 

per at a hotel near the depot, where there was 
abundant time to go through the ceremony of eating. 
It strikes me that Indianapolis would be an agreeable 
place to reside in. There are some cities a man 
feels at home in as soon as he gets into them ; there 
are others which make him homesick; just as one 
will meet faces which in a moment make a good 
impression on him, or which leave a dubious or dis- 
agreeable impression. That city has 16,000 people. 
Its streets are wide, and its walks convenient. All 
things denote enterprise, liberality, and comfort. It 
is 210 miles from Indianapolis to this city, via La- 
fayette and Michigan City. We ought to have 
made the time in less than twelve hours, and, but for 
protracted detentions at Lafayette and Michigan 
City, we would have done so. We reached the 
latter place at daylight, and there waited about the 
depot in dull impatience for the Detroit and Chicago 
train. It is the principal lake harbor in Indiana. 

It is about two years since I was last in Chicago ; 
and as I have walked about its streets my casual 
observation confirms the universal account of its 
growth and prosperity. I have noticed some new 
and splendid iron and marble buildings in the course 
.of completion. Chicago is a great place to find old 
acquaintances. For its busy population comprises 
citizens from every section of the United States, 
and from every quarter of the globe. The number 
of its inhabitants is now estimated at 100,000. 
Everybody that can move is active. It is a city of 



LALTIMORE TO CHICAGO. 27 

activity. Human thoughts are all turned towards 
wealth. All seem to be contending in the race for 
riches : some swift and daring on the open course ; 
some covertly lying low for a by-path. You go 
along the streets by jerks : down three feet to the 
street here ; then up four slippery steps to the side- 
walk there. Here a perfect crowd and commotion — 
almost a mob — because the drawbridge is up. You 
would think there was a wonderful celebration com- 
ing off at twelve, and that everybody was hurrying 
through his work to be in season for it. Last year 
20,000,000 bushels of grain were brought into Chi- 
cago. Five years ago there were not a hundred 
miles of railroad in the state of Illinois. Now there 
are more than two thousand. Illinois has all the 
elements of empire. Long may its great metro- 
polis prosper ! 



LETTER 11. 

CHICAGO TO ST. PAUL. 

Railroads to the Mississippi — Securing passage on the steamboat — 
The Lady Franklin — Scenery of the Mississippi — Hastings — ■ 
Growth of settlements. 

St. Paul, October, 1856. 
HoAV short a time it is since a railroad to the Mis- 
sissippi was thought a wonder ! And now within 
the state of Illinois four terminate on its banks. 
Of course I started on one of these roads from Chi- 
cago to get to Dunleith. I think it is called the 
Galena and Chicago Union Road. A good many 
people have supposed Galena to be situated on the 
Mississippi river, and indeed railroad map makers 
have had it so located as long as it suited their con- 
venience — (for they have a remarkable facility in 
annihilating distance and in making crooked ways 
straight) — yet the town is some twelve miles from 
the great river on a narrow but navigable stream. 
The extent and importance of Rockford, Galena, 
and Dunleith cannot fail to make a strong impres- 
sion on the traveller. They are towns of recent 
growth, and well illustrate that steam-engine sort of 
progress peculiar now-a-days in the west. Ap- 
proaching Galena we leave the region of level prai- 

(28) 



CH1CA(^0 TO ST. PAUL. 29 

rie and enter a mineral country of naked blufts or 
knolls, where are seen extensive operations in the 
lead mines. The trip from Chicago to Dunleith at 
the speed used on most other roads would be per- 
formed in six hours, but ten hours are usually occu- 
pied, for what reason I cannot imagine. However, 
the train is immense, having on board about six or 
seven hundred first class passengers, and two-thirds^ 
as many of the second class. Travelling in the cars 
out west is not exactly what it is between Phila- 
delphia and New York, or New York and Boston, 
in this respect: that in the West more families are 
found in the cars, and consequently more babies and 
carpet bags. 

It may not be proper to judge of the health of a 
community by the appearance of people who are 
seen standing about a railroad station ; yet I have 
often noticed, when travelling through Illinois, that 
this class had pale and sickly countenances, showing 
too clearly the traces of fever and ague. 

But I wish to speak about leaving the cars at 
Dunleith and taking the steamboat for St. Paul. 
There is a tremendous rush for the boats in order to 
secure state-rooms. Agents of different boats ap- 
proach the traveller, informing him all about their 
line of boats, and depreciating the opposition boats. 
For instance, an agent, or, if you please, a runner 
of a boat called Lucy — not Long — made the as- 
sertion on the levee with great zeal and perfect im- 
punity that no other boat but the said Lucy would 



30 MINNESOTA AND DACOTAH. 

leave for St. Paul within tAventy-four hours ; when 
it must have been known to him that another boat 
on the mail line would start that same evening, as 
was actually the fact. But the activity of the run- 
ners was needless ; for each boat had more passen- 
gers than it could well accommodate. I myself 
went aboard the " Lady Franklin," one of the mail 
boats, and was accommodated w^ith a state-room. 
But what a scene is witnessed for the first two hours 
after the passengers begin to come aboard ! The 
cabin is almost filled, and a dense crowd surrounds 
the clerk's office, just as the ticket office of a theatre 
is crowded on a benefit night. Of course not more 
tlian half can get state-rooms and the rest must 
sleep on the cabin floor. Over two hundred cabin 
passengers came up on the Lady Franklin. The 
beds which are made on the floor are tolerably 
comfortable, as each boat is supplied with an extra 
number of single mattresses. The Lady Franklin 
is an old boat, and this is said to be its last season.^ 
Two years ago it was one of the excursion fleet to 
St. Paul, and Avas then in its prime. But steamboats 
are short lived. We had three tables set, and those 
who couldn't get a seat at the first or second sat at 
the third. There was a choice you may believe, for 
such was the havoc made with the provisions at the 
first table that the second and third wxre not the most 
inviting. It was amusing to see gentlemen seat them- 

^Three weeks after this trip the Lady Frauklin was snagged, and 
became a total toss. 



CHICAGO TO ST. i'AUL. 



31 



selves in range of the plates as soon as they were laid, 
and an hour before the table was ready. But the offi- 
cers were polite — as is generally the case on steam- 
boats till you get down to the second mate — and in the 
course of a day or two, when the passengers begin to 
be acquainted, the time wears away pleasantly. We 
were nearly four days in making the trip. The line 
of boats of which the Lady Franklin is one, carries 
the mail at fifty dollars a trip. During the boating 
season I believe the fare varies from seven to ten 
dollars to St. Paul.^ This season there have been 
two lines of boats running to Minnesota. All of 
them have made money fast ; and next season many 
more boats will run. The "Northern Belle" is the 
best boat this season, and usually makes the trip up 
in two days. The advertised time is thirty hours. 

The scenery on the upper Mississippi is reputed 
to be beautiful. So it is. Yet all river scenery is 
generally monotonous. One gets tired of looking 
at high rocky ridges quite as quickly as at more 

^The following is a table of distances from Galena to St. Paul : 



D'lmque, . . 
J)anleith, . . 
Patosi lyanding, 
Waupaton, 
Biieua Vista, . 
C'assville, . . 
Gnttenberg, 
Clayton, . . 
Wyalusing, 
McGregor's, 
Prairie du Chieu, 
Red House, 
.Johnson's lyanding 
Lafayette, 
Columbus, 
Lansing, 
Pe Soto, 
Victory, 



. 24 




. I 


2.5 


. 14 


39 


. 10 


49 


. 5 


54 


. 4 


58 


. 10 


68 


. 12 


80 


. 5 


85 


. C 


91 


4 


95 


Ti 


100 


S, 2 


102 


. 30 132 1 


. 2 


134 


. 1 


135 


. 6 


141 


. 10 151 1 



Badaxe City, . 


10 161 1 


Warner's Landing, 6 167 


Brownsville, . 


10 177 


La Crosse, . . 


12 189 


Dacotah, . . 


12 201 


Richmond, 


6 207 


Monteville, 


5 212 


Homer, 


10 222 


Winona, . . 


7 229 


Fountain Git}-, 


12 241 


Mount Vernon, 


14 255 


Minneiska, 


4 259 


Alma, . . 


15 274 


Wabashaw, 


10 284 


Nelson's Landing, 


3 287 


Reed's Landing, 


. 2 289 


Foot of Lake Pepi 


n, 2 291 


North Pepin, . 


6 297 



Johnstown, 
Lake City, 
Central Point, 
Florence, . . 
jMaiden Rock, 
Westerville, 
Wacouta, . . 
Red Wing, . . 
Thing's Landing 
Diamond Bluff, 
Prescott, . . 
Point Douglass, 
Hastings, . . 
Grey Cioud, 
Pine Bend, 
Red Rock, . . 
Kaposia, . . 
St. Paul, . . 



2 299 

5 304 

2 306 

3 309 
3 312 
3 315 

12 327 

6 333 

7 310 

8 348 

13 361 
1 362 

3 365 
12 377 

4 381 
8 3.S9 
3 392 

5 397 



32 MINNESOTA AND DACOTAII. 

tame and tranquil scenery. The bluffs on either 
side of the Mississippi, for most of the way between 
Dunleith and St. Anthony's Falls, constitute some 
of the most beautiful river scenery in the world. It 
is seldom that they rise over two hundred feet from 
the water level, and their height is quite uniform, 
so that from a distant point of view their summit 
resembles a huge fortification. Nor, as a general 
thing, do they present a bold or rocky front. The 
rise from the river is gradual. Sometimes they rise 
to a sharp peak, towards the top of which crops out 
in half circles heavy ridges of limestone. The ra- 
vines which seem to divide them into separate ele- 
vations, are more thickly wooded, and appear to 
have been grooved out by the rolling down of deep 
waters. The most attractive feature of these bluffs — 
or miniature mountains, as they might be called — is 
their smooth grassy surface, thinly covered over 
with shade trees of various kinds. Whoever has 
seen a large orchard on a hill side can imagine how 
the sides of these bluffs look. At this season of the 
year the variegated foliage of the trees gives them a 
brilliant appearance. It is quite rare to see a bluff 
which rises gradually enough to admit of its being 
a good town site. Hence it is that settlements on 
the banks of the river will never be very numerous. 
Nature has here interposed against that civilization 
which adorns the lower Mississippi. It appears to 
me that all the available points for town sites on 
the river are taken up as far as the bluffs extend; 



CHICAGO TO ST. PAUL. 33 

and some of these will require a great amount of 
excavation before they can grow to importance. 

But there are several thrifty and pleasant villages 
in Minnesota, on the river, before reaching St. Paul. 
The first one of importance is Brownsville, where, 
for some time, was a United States land office. It 
is 153 miles above Dunleith. Winona, 53 miles 
further up, is a larger town. It is said to contain 
5000 population. There is a land office there also. 
But the town stands on land which, in very high 
water, will run too much risk of inundation. Pass- 
ing by several other landings and germs of towns, 
we come to Wacouta, ninety-eight miles above, 
which is a successful lumber depot. Six miles fur- 
ther on is Bed Wing, a place which delighted me on 
account of its cheerful location. It is growing quite 
fast, and is the seat of a large Methodist seminary. 
But the town of Hastings, thirty-two miles above, 
eclipses everything but St. Paul. It is finely 
located on rising ground, and the river is there nar- 
row and deep. The boat stopped here an hour, and 
I had a good opportunity to look about the place. 
The town appears to have considerable trade with 
the back country. Its streets are laid out with re- 
gularity ; its stores and buildings are spacious, du- 
rable, and neat. I heard that over ^2000 were 
asked for several of the building lots. A little way 
into the interior of the town I saw men at work on 
a stone church ; and approaching the spot, I deter- 
mined to make some inquiries of a boy who was 



o4: MINNESOTA AND DACOTAII. 

briskly planing boards. First, I asked how much 
the church was going to cost ? About $3000, he 
replied. 

" Are there any other churches in the place ?" 

"Yes, up there, where they are building." 

" What denomination is that ?" 

"I don't know," he responded. "I only came 
into the place yesterday." 

I thought he was doing well to begin to build 
churches so soon after his arrival. And from his 
countenance, I have no doubt he will do well, and 
become a useful citizen of the state. Hastings has its 
democratic press — the Dakota Journal, edited by J. 
C. Dow, a talented young man from New Hamp- 
shire. The population of the town is about two 
thousand. It is thirty-tAvo miles below St. Paul, 
on the west side of the river. There is nothing of 
especial interest between the two places. 

The great panorama which time paints is but a 
species of dissolving views. It is but as yesterday 
since the present sites of towns and cities on the 
shores just referred to showed only the rude huts 
of Indian tribes. To-day, the only vestige left 
there of the Indian are his burying-grounds. Here- 
after the rudeness of pioneer life shall be exchanged 
for a more genial civilization, and the present, then 
the past, will be looked back to as trivial by men 
still yearning for the future. 



LETTER III. 

CITY OF ST. PAUL. 

First settlement of St. Paul— Population — Appearance of the city — 
Fuller House — Visitors — Roads — Minneapolis — St. Anthony — Sus- 
pension Bridge. 

Fuller House, St. Paul, October, 185G. 
The circumstance of finding a good spring of 
"water first led to the settlement of Boston. It 
would not be unreasonable to suppose that a similar 
advantage induced the first settler of St. Paul to 
locate here ; for I do not suppose its pioneers for a 
long while dreamed of its becoming a place even of 
its present importance. And here let me mention 
that St. Paul is not on the west side of the Missis- 
sippi, but on the east. Though it is rather too 
elevated and rough in its natural state to have been 
coveted for a farm, it is yet just such a spot as a 
pioneer would like to plant himself upon, that he 
might stand in his door and have a broad and beau- 
tiful view towards the south and west. And when 
the speculator came he saw that it was at the head 
of navigation of what he thought was the Upper 
Mississippi, but which in reality is only the Middle 
Mississippi. Then stores were put up, small and 

rude, and trade began to increase with settlers and 

(35) 



00 MINNESOTA AND DACOTAIf. 

hunters of furs. Then came the organization of the 
territory, and the location of the capital here, so 
that St. Paul began to thrive still more from the 
crumbs which fell from the government table, as 
also by that flood of emigration which nothing ex- 
cept the Rocky Mountains has ever stayed from 
entering a new territory. And now it has passed 
its doubtful era. It has passed from its wooden to 
its brick age. Before men are certain of the suc- 
cess of a town, they erect one story pine shops ; but 
Avhen its success appears certain, they build high 
blocks of brick or granite stores. So noAV it is 
common to see four and five story brick or stone 
buildings going up in St. Paul. 

I believe .this city numbers at present about 
10,000 population. It is destined to increase for a 
few years still more rapidly than it has heretofore. 
But that it will be a second Chicago is what I do 
not expect. It would certainly seem that the high 
prices demanded for building lots must retard the 
progress of the place ; but I am told the prices have 
always been as high in proportion to the business 
and number of population. $500 and upwards is 
asked for a decent building lot in remote parts of 
the town. 

I have had an agreeable stroll down upon the 
bluif, south-east from the city, and near the elegant 
mansion of Mr. Dayton. The first engraving of St. 
Paul was made from a view taken at that point. As 

1 stood looking at the city, I recalled the picture in 



CITY OF ST. PAUL. 37 

Mr. Bond's work, and contrasted its present with the 
appearance it had three or four years ago. AVhat a 
change ! Three or four steamers Avere lying at the 
levee ; steam and smoke were shooting forth from 
the chimneys of numerous manufactories ; a ferry 
was plying the Mississippi, transporting teams and 
people ; church steeples and domes and great ware- 
houses stood in places which were vacant as if but 
yesterday ; busy streets had been built and peopled ; 
rows of splendid dwellings and villas, adorned with 
delightful terraces and gardens, had been erected. 
I went out on Sunday morning too, and the view 
was none the less pleasant. Business was silent ; 
but the church bells were ringing out their sweet 
and solemn melody, and the mellow sunlight of 
autumn glittered on the bright roofs and walls in the 
city. The whole scene revealed the glorious image 
of that ever advancing civilization which springs 
from well rewarded labor and general intelligence. 
Like all new and growing places in the west, St. 
Paul has its whiskey shops, its dusty and dirty 
streets, its up and down sidewalks, and its never- 
ceasing whirl of business. Yet it has its churches, 
well filled ; its spacious school-houses ; its daily 
newspapers ; and well-adorned mansions. There 
are many cottages and gardens situated on the most 
elevated part of the city, north and west, which 
would not suffer by a comparison with those cheer- 
ful and elegant residences so numerous for six to 
ten miles around Boston. From the parlors of these 
4 



38 MINNESOTA AND DACOTAII. 

homes one may look down upon the city and upon 
the smooth bosom of the river. In the streets, too, 
you see much evidence of opulence and luxury, in 
the shape of handsome carriages, which are set out 
to advantage by a first-rate quality of horses. 

One element of the success of this city is the 
public spirit of its leading business men. They have 
put their hands deep into their pockets to improve 
and advance the j^lace. In all their rivalry there is 
an amicable feeling and boundless liberality. They 
help him that tries to help himself, and help each 
other in a way that will help them all together ; and 
such kind of enterprises produces grand results. 
Why, here is a new hotel (the Fuller House) at which 
I stop, which is surpassed but by very few hotels in 
the country. It is a first-class house, built of brick, 
five stories high, and of much architectural beauty. 
The building itself cost upwards of $100,000, and 
its furniture over $30,000. Its proprietor is Mr. 
Long, who has already had good success in this sort 
of business. One can well imagine the comfort of 
finding such a house at the end of a long and tedious 
journey in a new country. 

It is estimated that 28,000 people have visited and 
left St. Paul during the present season. During 
July and August the travel diminishes, but as soon 
as autumn sets in it comes on again in daily floods. 
It is really a novel and interesting state of things 
one finds on his arrival at the hotel. There are so 
many people from so many different places ! Then 



CITY OF ST. PAUL. 39 

everybody is a stranger to almost everybody, and 
therefore quite willing to get acquainted Avith some- 
body. Everybody Avants a bit of information on 
some point. Everybody is going to some place 
where he thinks somebody has been or is going, and 
so a great many new acquaintances are made with- 
out ceremony or delay ; and old acquaintances are 
revived. I find people who have come from all sec- 
tions of the country — from the east and the west, 
and from the south — not adventurers merely, but 
men of substance and means, who seek a healthier 
climate and a pleasant home. Nor can I here omit 
to mention the meeting of my friend, Col. A. J. 
Whitney, wdio is one of the pioneers of Minnesota, 
and with whom I had two years before travelled 
over the western prairies. A. S. Marshall, Esq., 
of Concord, N. H., well known as a popular speaker, 
is also here on a visit. 

But what are the roads leading from St. Paul, and 
w^hat are the facilities of travel to places beyond ? 
These are questions which I suppose some would like 
to have answered. There is a road to Stillwater, 
and a stage, Avhich I believe runs daily. That is 
the route now often taken to Lake Superior. This 
morning three men came in on that stage from Su- 
perior, who have been a week on the journey. The 
great highway of the territory extends as far as 
Crow Wing, 130 miles north of here. It passes St. 
Anthony and several important towns on the eastern 
bank of the Mississippi. In a day or two I intend 



40 MINNESOTA x\ND DACOTAII. 

to take a journey as far as Crow Wing, and I can 
then write with more knowledge on the subject. 

A very pretty drive out of St. Paul is by the cave. 
This is an object worth visiting, and is about two 
miles out of the city. Three or four miles beyond 
are the beautiful falls of Minnehaha, or laughing 
water. The drive also takes in Fort Snelling. St. 
Anthony is on the east side of the Mississippi; 
Minneapolis is opposite, on the west side. Both 
places are now large and populous. The main 
street of St. Anthony is over a mile in length. One 
of the finest water powers in the Union is an cle- 
ment of growth to both towns. The lumber which 
is sawed there is immense. A company is under- 
taking to remove the obstructions to navigation in 
the river between St. Paul and St. Anthony. 
$20,000 were raised for the purpose ; one-half by 
the Steamboat Company, and the other half by the 
people of St. Anthony. The suspension bridge 
wdiich connects Minneapolis with St. Anthony is 
familiar to all. It is a fit type of the enterprise of 
the people. I forget the exact sum I paid as toll 
•when I walked across the bridge — perhaps it was 
a dime ; at any rate I was struck with the answer 
given by the young man who took the toll, in reply 
to my inquiry as I returned, if my coming back 
wasn't included in the toll paid going over ? " No," 
said he, in a very good-natured way, "• we don't 
know anything about coming back ; it's all go ahead 
in this countri/." 



LETTER IV. 

THE BAR. 

Character of the Minnesota bar — Effect of connecting land business 
■with practice — Courts — Recent legislation of Congress as to the 
territorial judiciary — The code of practice — Practice in land cases — 
Chances for Lawyers in the West — Charles O'Connor — Requisite 
qualifications of a lawj^er — The power and usefulness of a great 
lawyer — Talfourd's character of Sir William Follett — Blending law 
with politics — Services of lawyers in deliberative assemblies. 

St. Paul, October, 1856. 
I HAVE not yet been inside of a court of justice, 
nor seen a case tried, since I have been in the terri- 
tory. But it has been my pleasure to meet one of 
the judges of the supreme court and several promi- 
nent members of the bar. My impression is, that 
in point of skill and professional ability the Minne- 
sota bar is a little above the average of territorial 
bars. Here, as in the West generally, the practice 
is common for lawyers to mix with their profession 
considerable miscellaneous business, such as the 
buying and selling of land. The law is too jealous 
a mistress to permit any divided love, and there- 
fore it cannot be expected that really good lawyers 
will be found in the ranks of general business 
agents and speculators. In other words, a broker's 
4* (41) 



42 MINNESOTA AND DACUTAll. 

oiEce is not a lawyer's office. There are some law- 
yers here who have attended strictly to the profes- 
sion, who are ornaments of it, and who have met 
with good success. The idea has been common, and 
as fatal as common, that success in legal practice 
could be easily attained in the West with a small 
amount of skill and learning. It is true that a poor 
lawyer aided by some good qualities will sometimes 
rise to affluence and eminence, though such cases are 
exceptions. There are able laAvyers in the West, 
and, though practice may be less formal and subtle 
than in older communities, ability and skill find 
their relative advancement and reward, while igno- 
rance and incapacity have their downward tendency 
just as they do everywhere else. The fees for pro- 
fessional services are liberal, being higher than in 
the East. Before an attorney can be admitted to 
practise he must have an examination by, or under 
the direction of, one of the judges of the supreme 
court. The provisions of the territorial statutes 
are quite strict in their tendency to maintain up- 
right practice. 

An act of the present congress has created a 
revolution in the courts of the territory. The or- 
ganic act, § 9, provided that the territory should be 
divided into three judicial districts ; " and a dis- 
trict court shall be held in each of said districts by 
one of the justices of the supreme court, at such 
times and places as may he 'prescribed hy law'' 
This meant, I suppose, at such times and places as 



THE BAR. 43 

tlie territorial legislature should prescribe. Accord- 
ingly, as population increased and extended, and as 
counties were established, the territorial legislature 
increased the places in each district for holding the 
district court. Either on account of the expense 
or for some other cause congress has just stepped 
aside from the doctrine of non-intervention (ch. 124, 
sec. 5), and abrogated the territorial legislation so 
far as to provide that there shall be but one place 
in each of the three districts for holdinoj a district 
court. The act applies to all territories. In a 
territory of five or six hundred miles in extent it is 
of course inconvenient to have but three places for 
holding courts. The Minnesotians complain that it 
is an interference with popular sovereignty. It is 
possible the legislature might have gone to an ex- 
treme in creating places for holding courts ; and I 
suppose the judges were kept on the march a good 
deal of the time. It also looks as if the remedy by 
congress was extreme. The people say it is a co- 
ercive measure to drive them into a state organi- 
zation. 

The administration of justice is secured by a sys- 
tem which is now common to all the territories, Avith 
the exception of Kansas. The supreme court con- 
sists of the three district judges in full bench. They 
hold nisi prius terms in their respective districts, 
which are called district courts. The judges have 
a salary of $2000 each, and are appointed for a 
term of four years, subject to removal by the Presi- 



44 MINNESOTA AND DACOTAH. 

dent. The district courts have chancery jurisdic- 
tion in matters where there is not a plain, adequate, 
and coraplete remedy at law. (Stat, of Min. ch. 94, 
sec. 1.) There are also probate Courts. Each 
county has two justices of the peace, who are elect- 
ed by the people. And I cannot but remark how 
much better the practice is to elect or appoint a few 
justices of the peace rather than to allow the office 
to be degraded by wholesale appointments, as a 
matter of compliment, according to the usage too 
common in some Eastern States. The justices of 
the peace have jurisdiction in civil cases where the 
amount in question does not exceed $100 ; and 
when the amount at issue is over $20 either party 
may demand a jury of six men to try the case. 
But there would be little demand for juries if all 
magistrates Avere as competent as our enlightened 
friend Judge Russell. 

Special pleading never flourished much in the 
West. It was never '' a favorite with the court" out 
this way ; while the regard which the lawyers have 
cherished for it has been "distant and respectful." 
It has been laid on the shelf about as effectually as 
bleeding in the practice of medicine. The science 
of special pleading, as it is known in these days — 
and that in some of the older states — exists in a 
mitigated form from what it did in the days of Coke 
and Hale. The opportunities to amend, and the 
various barriers against admitting a multiplicity of 
pleas, have rendered the sj^'stem so much more 



THE BAR. 45 

rational than it once was, that it is doubtful if some 
of the old English worthies could noAV identify it. 
Once a defendant could plead to an action of assump- 
sit just as many defences as he chose ; first, he could 
deny the whole by pleading the general issue ; then 
he could plead the statute of limitations, infancy, 
accord and satisfaction, and a dozen other pleas, by 
wdiich the plaintiff would be deprived of any clue to 
the real defence. I suppose it was this practice of 
formal lying which has given rise to the popular 
error that a lawyer is in the habit of lying, or is 
obliged to lie, in his arguments. Many people do 
not know the difference between pleading — which is 
a process in writing to bring the parties to an issue — 
and the oral arguments of counsel in courts. It is 
ridiculous to suppose that it is easy or profitable for 
lawyers to make false statements in their arguments. 
The opposing counsel is ready to catch at anything 
of the kind ; and if he misstates the evidence, the 
jury are aware of it ; while if he states what is not 
law, the court generally knows it. So there is no 
opportunity for lying even if a lawyer should be so 
disposed. The practice in civil actions as provided 
by the statutes of Minnesota is similar — if not 
actually the same — to the New York code of prac- 
tice. There is but one form of action, called an 
action of contract. The only pleading on the part 
of the plaintiff is, 1st, the complaint ; 2d, the reply. 
On the part of the defendant, 1st, demurrer ; or 2d, 
the answer. (Stats, ch. 70, sec. 58.) The com- 



46 MINNESOTA AN1> DACUTAH. 

plaint must contain, 1st, the title of the cause, 
specifying the name of the court in which the action 
is brought and the names of the parties to the action, 
plaintiff and defendant ; 2d, a statement of the facts 
constituting the cause of action in ordinary and 
concise language, without repetition, and in such a 
manner as to enable a person of common under- 
standing to know what is intended ; 3d, a demand 
of the relief to which the plaintiff supposes himself 
entitled. If the recovery of money be demanded 
the amount must be stated. (Ibid. sec. 59.) 

While testifying my approval of this code of prac- 
tice as a whole, I cannot resist saying that in many 
respects it is not so systematic as the Massachusetts 
code, which was devised by Messrs. Curtis (now Mr. 
Justice), Lord, and Chapman. That code is one of 
the best in the world. And if I may be allowed 
one word more about special pleading, I would say 
that there is no branch of law which will better 
reward study. Without mentioning the practice in 
the U. S. courts, which requires, certainly, a know- 
ledge of special pleading, no one can read the old 
English reports and text books with much profit, 
who is ignorant of the principles of that science. 

A class of business peculiar to new territories and 
states arises from the land laws. A great many 
pre-emption cases are contested before the land offi- 
cers, in which the services of lawyers are required. 
This fact will partly explain why there are, gene- 
rally, so many lawyers located in the vicinity of a 



THE EAR. 47 

land office. In a community that is newly settled 
the title to property must often be in dispute ; and 
however much averse people may be to going to law, 
they find it frequently indispensable, if they wish to 
have their rights settled on a firm basis. 

The opinion prevails almost universally in the East 
that a lawyer can do best in the West. In some 
respects he can. If he cannot do a good deal better, 
he is not compensated for going. I had the pleasure 
of a conversation last summer with one of the most 
eminent members of the New York bar (Mr. O'Con- 
nor), on this very subject. It was his opinion that 
western lawyers begin sooner to enjoy their reputa- 
tion than the lawyers in the eastern cities. This is 
true ; and results from there being less competition 
in newer communities. " A lawyer among us," said 
Mr. O'Connor, "seldom acquires eminence till he 
begins to turn gray." Nevertheless, there is no 
field so great and so certain in the long run, in which 
one may become really a great lawyer, as in some 
of our large commercial cities, wdiether of the East 
or the West. To admit of the highest professional 
eminence there must be a large and varied business ; 
and a lawyer must devote himself almost exclusively 
to law. And then, when this great reputation is 
acquired, what does it amount to ? Something now, 
but not much hereafter. The great lawyer lives a 
life of toil and excitement. Often does it seem to 
"break on the fragments of a reviving dream." 
His nerves are w^orn by the troubles of others ; for 



48 MINNESOTA AND DACOTAII. 

the exercise of the profession, as has been said by 
a brilliant lawyer, " involves intimate participation 
with the interests, hopes, fears, passions, aifections, 
and vicissitudes of many lives." And yet merely 
as a lawyer, he seldom leaves any durable vestige 
of his fame behind him — hardly a fortune. But if 
his fame is transient and mortal, there is some equi- 
valent in the pleasure of triumph and the conscious- 
ness of power. There is no man so powerful as the 
great lawyer. The wealth and the character of his 
fellow men often depend upon him. His clients are 
sometimes powerful corporations, or cities, or states. 
Crowded courts listen to his eloquence year after 
year ; and no one has greater freedom of speech 
than he. The orator and politician may be wafted 
into a conspicuous place for a brief period, and fall 
again when popular favor has cooled ; yet the lawyer 
is rising still higher, nor can the rise and fall of 
parties shake him from his high pedestal ; for the 
tenure of his power is not limited. He is, too, one 
of the most serviceable protectors of the liberties of 
his country. It was as a lawyer that Otis thundered 
against writs of assistance. The fearless zeal of 
Somers, in defence of the seven bishops, fanned the 
torch of liberty at the beginning of the great Eng- 
lish revolution. Erskine and Brougham did more 
as lawyers to promote freedom of the press, than 
as statesmen. 

I cannot refrain from inserting here Mr. Justice 
Talfourd's interesting analysis of the professional 



THE BAR. 49 

abilities of Follett : ^' It may be well, while the ma- 
terials for investigation remain, to inquire into the 
causes of success, so brilliant and so fairly attained 
by powers which have left so little traces of their 
progress. Erskine was never more decidedly at the 
head of the common law bar than Follett ; com- 
pared with Follett he was insignificant in the house 
of commons ; his career was chequered by vanities 
and weaknesses from which that of Follett was free ; 
and yet even if he had not been associated with the 
greatest constitutional questions of his time and 
their triumphant solution, his fame would live by 
the mere force and beauty of his forensic eloquence 
as long as our language. But no collection of the 
speeches of Follett has been made ; none will ever 
be attempted ; no speech he delivered Is read, ex- 
cept perchance as part of an Interesting trial, and 
essential to its story, and then the language is felt 
to be poor, the cadences without music, and the 
composition vapid and spiritless ; although, if studied 
with a view to the secrets of forensic success, with 
a 'learned spirit of human dealing,' in connexion 
with the facts developed and the difficulties encoun- 
tered, will supply abundant materials for admiration 
of that unerring skill which induced the repetition 
of fortunate topics, the dexterous suppression of the 
most stubborn things when capable of oblivion, and 
the light evasive touch with which the speaker ful- 
filled his promise of not forgetting others which 
could not be passed over, but which, if deeply con- 



50 MINNESOTA AND DACOTAII. 

siclered, might be fatal. If, however, there was no 
principle of duration in his forensic achievements, 
there can be doubt of the esteem in which they were 
held or the eagerness with w^hich they were sought. 
His supremacy in the minds of clients was more 
like the rage of a passion for a youthful Roscius or 
an extraordinary preacher, than the result of deli- 
berate consideration ; and yet it prevailed, in ques- 
tions not of an evening's amusement, but of penury 
or riches, honor or shame. Suitors were content, 
not only to make large sacrifices for the assured 
advantage of his advocacy, but for the bare chance 
— the distant hope — of having some little part (like 
that w^hich Phormio desires to retain in Thais) of 
his faculties, with the certainty of preventing their 
opposition. There was no just ground, in his case, 
for the complaint that he received large fees for 
services he did not render ; for the chances were 
understood by those w^ho adventured in his lottery ; 
in which after all there were comparatively few 
blanks. His name was ' a tower of strength,' which 
it was delightful to know that the adverse faction 
wanted, and which inspired confidence even on the 
back of the brief of his forsaken junior, who bore 
the burden and heat of the day for a fifth of the fee 
which secured that name. Will posterity ask w'hat 
were the powers thus sought, thus prized, thus re- 
W'arded, and thus transient ? They wdll be truly 
told that he w^as endowed, in a remarkable degree, 
w^ith some moral qualities which smoothed his course 



THE BAR. 51 

and charmed away opposition, and with some phy- 
sical advantages which happily set oft' his intellec- 
tual gifts ; that he was blessed with a temper at 
once gentle and even ; with a gracious manner and 
a social temperament; that he was Avithout jealousy 
of the solid or showy talents of others, and willingly 
gave them the amplest meed of praise ; that he 
spoke with all the grace of modesty, yet with the 
assurance of perfect mastery over his subject, his 
powers, and his audience ; and yet they will scarcely 
recognise in these excellencies sufiicient reasons for 
his extraordinary success. To me, the true secret 
of his peculiar strength appeared to lie in the pos- 
session of two powers which rarely co-exist in the 
same mind — extraordinary subtlety of perception 
and as remarkable simplicity of execution. In the 
first of these faculties — in the intuitive power of 
common sense, Avhich is the finest essence of expe- 
rience, whereby it attains ' to something of prophetic 
strain' — he excelled all his contemporaries except 
Lord Abinger, w^ith whom it was more liable to be 
swayed by prejudice or modified by taste, as it was 
adorned with happier graces. The perfection of 
this faculty was remarkably exemplified in the fleet- 
ing visits he often paid to the trials of causes which 
he had left to the conduct of his juniors ; a few 
words, sometimes a glance, sufiiced to convey to 
his mind the exact position of complicated aft'airs, 
and enabled him to decide what should be done or 
avoided ; and where the interference of any other 



52 MINNESOTA AND DACOTAH. 

advocate would have been dangerous, he often ren- 
dered good service, and, which was more extraor- 
dinary, never did harm. So his unrivalled aptitude 
for legal reasoning, enabled him to deal with autho- 
rities as he dealt with facts ; if unprepared for an 
argument, he could find its links in the chaos of an 
index, and make an imposing show of learning out 
of a page of Harrison ; and with the aid of the in- 
terruptions of the bench, which he could as dexter- 
ously provoke as parry, could find the right clue and 
conduct a luminous train of reasoning to a trium- 
phant close. His most elaborate arguments, though 
not comparable in essence with those of his chief 
opponent, Lord Campbell — which, in comprehen- 
sive outline, exact logic, felicitous illustration, and 
harmonious structure, excelled all others I have 
heard — were delivered in tones so nicely adapted 
to the minds and ears of the judges, with an ear- 
nestness so winning, and a confidence so contagious, 
that they made a judgment on his side not only a 
necessity, but a pleasure. 

" The other faculty, to which, in combination with 
his subtlety of understanding, the excellence of his 
advocacy may be attributed, is one more rarely pos- 
sessed — and scarcely ever in such association — the 
entire singleness of a mind equally present in every 
part of a cause. If the promotion of the interest 
of the client were an advocate's highest duty, it 
would be another name for the exactest virtue ; and 
inasmuch as that interest is not, like the objects of 



THE BAR. 53 

moral zeal, fixed in character, but liable to frequent 
change, the faculty of directing the whole power of 
the understanding to each shifting aspect of the 
cause in its minutest shadowings without the guid- 
ance of an inflexible law, is far more wonderful, if 
far less noble, than a singleness of devotion to right. 
It has an integrity of its own, which bears some 
affinity to that honesty which Baillie Nichol Jarvie 
attributes to his Highland kinsman. Such honesty 
— that is, the entire devotion of all the faculties to 
tlie object for which it was retained, without the 
lapse of a moment's vanity or indolence, with un- 
limited vision and unceasing activity — was FoUett's 
beyond all other advocates of our time. To the pre- 
sentment of truth, or sophism, as the cause might 
require, he gave his entire mind with as perfect 
oblivion of- self as the most heroic sufferer for prin- 
ciple. The faculty which in Gladstone, the states- 
man, applied to realities and inspired only by the 
desire to discover the truth and to clothe it in lan- 
guage, assumes, in the minds of superficial observers, 
the air of casuistry from the nicety of its distinctions 
and the earnest desire of the speaker to present truth 
in its finest shades — in Follett, the advocate, applied 
indiscriminately to the development of the specious 
shows of things as of their essences, wore all the 
semblance of sincerity ; and, in one sense, deserved 
it. No fears, no doubts, no scruples shook him. 
Of the license which advocacy draws from sym- 
5* 



54 MINNESOTA AND DACOTAH. 

pathy with the feelings of those it represents, 
he made full use, with unhesitating power ; for his 
reason, of 'large discourse,' was as pliable as the 
aifections of the most sensitive nature. Nor was he 
diverted from his aim by any figure or fancy : if he 
neither exalted his subject by imagination, nor illus- 
trated it by wit, nor softened its details by pathos, 
he never made it the subject of vain attempts at 
the exhibition of either. He went into the arena 
stripped of all encumbrance, to win, and contended 
studious only and always of victory. His presence 
of mind was not merely the absence of external dis- 
traction, nor the capacity of calling up all energies 
on an emergency, but the continued application of 
them equally to the duty of each moment. There 
are few speakers, even of fervid sincerity and zeal, 
whose thoughts do not frequently run before or 
beside the moment's purpose ; whose wits do not 
sometimes wander on to some other part of the case 
than that they are instantly discussing ; who do not 
anticipate some future eifect, or dally with some 
apprehension of future peril, wdiile they should 
consider only the next word or sentence. This 
momentary desertion of the exact purpose never 
occurred to Follett; he fitted the thought to its 
place ; the word to the thought ; and allowed the 
action only to take care of itself, as it always will 
with an earnest speaker. His, therefore, was rather 
the artlessness than the art of advocacy — its second 



THE BAR. 00 

nature — justly appreciated by those to whose inter- 
ests it was devoted ; but not fully understood even 
by the spectator of its exertion ; dying with the 
causes in which it was engaged, and leaving no 
vestiges except in their success. Hence the blank 
which is substituted for the space he filled in human 
affairs. The modest assurance, the happy boldness, 
the extemporaneous logic, all that ' led but to the 
grave,' exist, like the images of departed actors, 
only in the recollection of those who witnessed them, 
till memory shall fade into tradition, and tradition 
dwindle down to a name." (Supplement to Vacation 
Rambles, p. 115.) The eagerness with which the 
talents of Sir William Follett were sought, forcibly 
illustrates the truth of a remark, made to me in the 
course of some friendly advice, by one who may be 
ranked among the most brilliant advocates who have 
adorned the American Bar (now in the highest office 
in the nation), that to attain the highest rank in the 
legal profession, a lawyer must have such abilities 
and character as will "compel" patronage. 

He, however, who enters the profession here or 
elsewhere merely as a stepping stone to political 
preferment, need not expect great success, even 
though he may acquire some temporary advance- 
ment. The day is past when lawyers could mo- 
nopolize every high place in the state. The habit 
of public speaking is not now confined to the learned 
professions. Our peculiar system of education has 



56 MINNESOTA AND DACOTAII. 

trained up a legion of orators and politicians outside 
of the bar. Now-a-days a man must have other 
qualifications besides the faculty of speech-making 
to win the prize in politics. He must be a man of 
comprehensive ability, and thoroughly identified with 
the interests of the people, before he can secure 
much popular favor, or else he must be possessed of 
such shining talents and character that his fellow 
men will take a pride in advancing him to con- 
spicuous and responsible trusts. Let a man have a 
part or all of these qualifications, however, and with 
them the experience and tact of a lawyer, and he 
will of course make a more valuable public servant, 
especially if he is placed in a deliberative body. 
The British cabinets have always relied vastly on 
the support afforded them in the house of commons 
by their attorneys and solicitors general, whether it 
consisted in the severe and solemn logic of Komilly, 
in the cool and ready arguments of Scarlett, or the 
acute and irresistible oratory of Sir William Follett. 
The education of a lawyer; — his experience as a 
manager; his art of covering up weak points : his 
ready and adroit style of speaking; — all serve to 
make him peculiarly valuable to his OAvn party, and 
dangerous to an opposition in a deliberative body. 
But the fact that a man is a lawyer does not advance 
him in politics so much as it once did. Fortunate 
it is so ! For though learning will always have its 
advantages, yet no profession ought to have exclu- 



THE BAH. 57 

sive privileges. Nor need the lawyer repine that it 
is so, inasmuch as it is for his benefit, if he desires 
success in the profession, to discard the career of 
politics. The race is not to the swift, and he can 
afford to wait for the legitimate honors of the bar. 
1 will conclude by saying that I regard Minnesota 
as a good field for an upright, industrious, and com- 
petent lawyer. For those of an opposite class, I 
have never yet heard of a very promising field. 



LETTER V. 

ST. PAUL TO CROW WING IN TWO DAYS. 

Stages — Roads — Rum River — Indian treaty — Itasca — Sauk Rapids — 
Watab at midnight — Lodging under difficulties — Little Rock River 
— Character of Minnesota streams — Dinner at Swan River — Little 
Falls — Fort Ripley — Arrival at Crow AVing. 

Crow Wing, October, 1856. 

Here I am, after two days drive in a stage, at 
the town of Crow Wing, one hundred and thirty 
miles, a httle west of north, from St. PauL I will 
defer, however, any remarks on Crow Wing, or the 
many objects of interest hereabout, till I have men- 
tioned a few things which I saw coming up. 

Between St. Paul and this place is a tri-weekly 
line of stages. The coaches are of Concord manu- 
facture, spacious and comfortable ; and the entire 
equipage is well adapted to the convenience of tra- 
vellers. Next season, the enterprising proprietors, 
Messrs. Chase and Allen, who carry the mail, intend 
establishing a daily line. 1 left the Fuller House 
in the stage at about five in the morning. There 
was only a convenient number of passengers till we 
arrived at St. Anthony, where we breakfasted; but 
then our load was more than doubled, and Ave drove 
out with nine inside and about seven outside, with 

(58) 



ST. PAUL TO CROW WIX(i IN TWO DAYS. ol) 

any quantity of baggage. The road is very level 
and smooth ; and with the exception of encounter- 
ing a few small stumps where the track has been 
diverted for some temporary impediment, and also 
excepting a few places where it is exceedingly sandy, 
it is an uncommonly superior road. It is on the 
eastern bank of the Mississippi, and was laid out 
very straight. But let me remark that everybody 
who travels it seems conscious that it is a govern- 
ment road. There are several bridges, and they are 
often driven over at a rapid rate, much to their 
damage. When Minnesota shall have a state gov- 
ernment, and her towns or counties become liable 
for the condition of the roads, people will doubtless 
be more economical of the bridges, even though the 
traveller be not admonished to walk his horse, or to 
"keep to the right," &c. 

Emerging from St. Anthony, the undulating 
aspect of the country ceases, and we enter upon an 
almost unbroken plain. A leading characteristic of 
the scenery is the thin forests of oak, commonly 
called oak openings. The soil appears to be rich. 

Seven miles from St. Anthony is a tidy settle- 
ment called Manomin, near the mouth of Rice river. 
But the first place of importance which we reached 
is Anoka, a large and handsome village situated on 
Rum river. It is twenty-five miles from St. Paul. 
The river is a large and beautiful stream and affords 
good water-power, in the development of which 
Anoka appears to thrive. A vast number of pine 



60 MINNESOTA AND DACOTAII. 

logs are annually floated down the river and sawed 
into lumber at the Anoka mills. The settlers are 
principally from Maine. By the treaty of 22d Feb- 
ruary, 1855, with three bands of the Chippewa In- 
dians, an appropriation of $5000 was set apart for 
the construction of a road from the mouth of Rum 
river to Mille Lac. The road is half completed. 

"VVe took an early dinner at Itasca, having come 
thirty-two miles. Itasca is quite an unassuming 
place, and not so pretty as its name. But I shall 
always cherish a good-will for the spot, inasmuch as 
I got a first-rate dinner there. It was all put upon 
the table before we sat down, so that each one could 
help himself; and as it consisted of very palatable 
edibles, each one did help himself quite liberally. 
We started on soon afterwards, with a new driver 
and the third set of horses ; but with the disagree- 
able consciousness that we had still before us the 
largest part of the day's journey. In about three 
hours we came to Big Lake, or, as it is sometimes 
called, Humboldt. The lake is anything but a big 
lake, being the size of a common New England 
pond. But then all such sheets of water are called 
lakes in this part of the country. It is a clear body 
of water, abounding with fine fish, and has a beau- 
tiful shore of pebbles. Several similar sheets of 
water are passed on the journey, the shores of which 
present a naked appearance. There is neither the 
trace of a stream leading from or to them, nor, with 
few exceptions, even a swamp in their vicinity. 



ST. PAUL TO CROW WINd IN TWO DAYS. (>! 

Sauk Rapids is 44 miles from Itasca, and it was 
late when we readied there. But, late as it was, 
we found a large collection of people at the post 
office waiting for the mail. They appeared to have 
had a caucus, and were discussing politics with much 
animation. There is at Sauk Rapids a local land 
office. That is of more advantage to a place than 
being the county seat. In a short time, however, 
some of the land offices will be removed further 
west for the convenience of settlers. The village 
is finely situated on rising ground, and contains 
some handsome residences. 

It was midnight when we arrived at Watab, where 
we were to lodge. The weather had been delightful 
during the day, but after nightfall a high wind rose 
and filled the air with dust. I descended from the 
stage — for I had rode upon the outside — with self- 
satisfied emotions of having come eighty-two miles 
since mornino;. The stao;e-house was crowded. It 
is a two-story building, the rooms of which are small. 
I went to bed, I was about to say, without any sup- 
per. But that was not so. I didn't get any supper, 
it is true, neither did I get a bed, for they were all 
occupied. The spare room on the floor was also 
taken. The proprietor, hoAvever, was accommodat- 
ing;, and f^ave me a sort of a lounsie in rather a small 
room where three or four other men, and a dog, 
were sleeping on the floor. I fixed the door ajar 
for ventilation, and with my overcoat snugly but- 
toned around me, though it was not cold, addressed 
6 



<'>2 MINNESOTA AND DACOTAII. 

myself to sleep. In the morning I found that one 
of the occupants was an ex-alderman from the fifth 
ward of New York ; and that in the room over me 
slept no less a personage than Parker H. French. 
I say I ascertained these facts in the morning. Mr. 
French came to Watab a few weeks ago with a com- 
pany of mechanics, and has been rushing the place 
ahead with great zeal. He appears to make a good 
impression on the people of the town. 

A heavy rain had fallen during the night; the 
stage was but moderately loaded, and I started out 
from Watab, after breakfast the next morning, in 
bright spirits. Still the road is level, and at a slow 
trot the team makes better time than a casual ob- 
server is conscious of. Soon we came to Little Rock 
Kiver, which is one of the crookedest streams that 
was ever known of. We are obliged to cross it twice 
within a short space. Twelve miles this side we 
cross the beautiful Platte Kiver. It would make 
this letter much more monotonous than it is, I fear, 
were I to name all the rivers we pass. They are 
very numerous : and as they increase the delight 
of the traveller, so are they also a delight and a 
convenience to the settler. Like the rivers of New 
England, they are clear and rapid, and furnish 
abundant means for w^ater-power. The view which 
we catch of the Mississippi is frequent, but brief, 
as the road crosses its curves in the most direct 
manner. Much of the best land on either side of 



ST. PAUL TO CROW WING IN TWO DAYS. G3 

the road is in the hands of speculators, who pur- 
chased it at public sale, or afterwards plastered it 
over with land warrants. There is evidence of this 
on the entire route ; for, although we pass populous 
villages, and a great many splendid farms, the 
greater part of the land is still unoccupied. The 
soil is dark colored, but in some places quite mealy ; 
everywhere free from stones, and susceptible of easy 
cultivation. 

We arrived at Swan River at about one o'clock, 
where we dined on wild ducks. That is a village 
also of considerable importance ; but it is not so 
large as Little Falls, which is three miles this side. 
At that place the Mississippi furnishes a good water- 
power. It has a spacious and tidy hotel, several 
stores, mechanics' shops, a saw-mill, &c. At Belle 
Prairie we begin to see something of the Chippewas. 
The half-breeds have there some good farms, and 
the school-house and the church denote the progress 
of civilization. It was near sunset when we reach- 
ed Fort Ripley. The garrison stands on the west 
bank of the Mississippi, but the reservation extends 
several miles on both sides. The stage crosses the 
river on the ferry to leave the mail and then re- 
turns. The great flag was still flying from the high 
staff, and had an inspiring influence. Like most of 
our inland military posts, Fort Ripley has no stone 
fortifications. It is neatly laid out in a square, 
and surrounded by a high protective fence. Three 



64 MINNESOTA AND DACOTA II. 

or four field-piecos stand upon the bank of the 
river fronting it, and at some distance present a 
warlike attitude. The rest of the trip, being about 
five miles, was over the reservation, on which, till 
we come to Crow Wing, are no settlements. Here 
I gladly alighted from the coach, and found most 
comfortable and agreeable entertainment at a house 
which stands on the immediate bank of the river. 



LETTER VI. 

THE TOWN OF CROW WING. 

Scenery — First settlement of Crow Wing — Red Lake Indians — Mr. 
Morrison — Prospects of the town — Upper navigation — Mr. Beau- 
lieu — Washington's theory as to Norfolk — Observations on the 
growth of towns. 

Crow Wing, October, 1856. 

I AM highly gratified with the appearance of this 
place. Mr. Burke says — " In order that we 
should love our country, our country should first be 
lovely," and there is much wisdom in the remark. 
Nature has done so much for this locality that one 
could be contented to live here on quite a moderate 
income. The land is somewhat elevated, near the 
bank of the Mississippi, aff*ording a pleasant view 
over upon the western side, both above and below 
the two graceful mouths of the Crow Wing River. 
Towards the east and north, after a few miles, the 
view is intercepted by a higher ridge of land covered 
with timber ; or, by the banks of the Mississippi 
itself, as from this point we begin to ascend it in a 
northeasterly course. 

Crow Wing was selected as a trading post up- 
wards of twenty years ago. Mr. McDonnald, who 
6* (05) 



6^* MINNESOTA AND DACOTAH. 

Still resides here, was, I believe, the first white set- 
tler. Till within a recent period it was the head- 
quarters of the Mississippi tribe of Chippewas, and 
the jDrincipal trading depot with the Chippewas 
generally. Here they brought their furs, the fruits 
of their buffalo and their winter hunts, and their 
handicraft of beads and baskets, to exchange for 
clothing and for food. Thus the place was located 
and settled on long before there was a prospect of 
its becoming a populous town. Mr. Rice, the dele- 
gate in congress, if I mistake not, once had a branch 
store here with several men in his employ. The 
principal traders at present are Mr. Abbee and Mr. 
Beaulieu, who have large and well selected stocks 
of goods. The present population of white persons 
probably numbers a hundred souls. The place now 
has a more populous appearance on account of the 
presence of a caravan of Red Lake Indians, who 
have come down about four hundred miles to trade. 
They are encamped round about in tents or birch 
bark lodges, as it may happen to be. In passing 
some of them, I saw the squaws busily at work on 
the grass outside of the lodge in manufacturing flag 
carpets. The former Indian residents are now re- 
moved to their reservation in the fork of the Mis- 
sissippi and Crow Wing rivers, where their agency 
is now established. 

The houses here are very respectable in size, and 
furnished in metropolitan style and elegance. The 
farms are highly productive, and the grazing for 



THE TOWN OF CROAV WING. 67 

stock unequalled. There is a good ferry at the 
upper end of the town, at a point where the river is 
quite narrow and deep. You can be taken over 
with a horse for twenty-five cents ; with a carriage, 
I suppose, the tariif is higher. 

Perhaps one cause of my favorable impression of 
Crow Wing is the excelle it and home-like hotel ac- 
commodations which I have found. The proprietor 
hardly assumes to keep a public-house, and yet pro- 
vides his guests with very good entertainment ; and 
I cannot refrain from saying that there is no public- 
house this side of St. Paul where the traveller will 
be better treated. Mr. Morrison — for that is the 
proprietor's name — came here fifteen years ago, 
having first come into this region in the service of 
John Jacob Astor. He married one of the hand- 
somest of the Chippewa maidens, who is now his 
faithful wife and housekeeper, and the mother of 
several interesting and amiable children. Mr. M. 
is the postmaster. He has been a member of the 
territorial legislature, and his name has been given 
to a large and beautiful county. I judge that soci- 
ety has been congenial in the town. The little 
church, standing on an eminence, indicates some 
union of sentiment at least, and a regard for the 
higher objects of life. Spring and summer and 
autumn must be delightful seasons here, and bring: 
with them the sweetest tranquillity. Nor are the 
people shut out from the world in winter ; for then 
there is travel and intercourse and traffic. So arc 



68 MINNESOTA AND DACOTA H. 

there pleasures and recreation peculiar to the sea- 
son. 

But the serene and quiet age of the settlement is 
near its close. Enterprise and speculation, with 
their bustle and turmoil, have laid hold of it. The 
clank of the hammer, the whistle of steamboats, the 
rattling of carts, heaps of lumber and of bricks, 
excavations and gradings, short corners and rough 
unshapen walks, will usurp the quiet and the regu- 
larity of the place. Indeed a man ought to make 
a fortune to compensate for residing in a town dur- 
ing the first years of its rapid building. The streets 
appear, on the map, to be wxll laid out. A number 
of purchasers of lots are preparing to build ; and a 
few new buildings are already going up. As near 
as I am able to learn, the things which conduce to 
its availability as a business place are these — First, 
it is the beginning of the Upper Mississippi naviga- 
tion. From this point steamboats can go from two 
to three hundred miles. But they cannot pass be- 
low, on account of the obstructions near Fort Ripley, 
at Little Falls, and at Sauk Rapids. This of course 
is a great element in its future success, as the coun- 
try above in the valley of the river is destined to 
be thickly settled, and boats will run between this 
point and the settlements along the river. It will 
also be a large lumber market, for the pine forests 
begin here and extend along the river banks for 
hundreds of miles, while the facility of getting the 
logs down is unexceptionable. The territory north 



THE TOWN OF CHOW WING. 69 

of Crow Wing is now open for settlers to a great 
distance, the Indian title having been extinguished. 
Tavo land districts have also been established, which 
will be an inducement for fresh emigration. There 
is no other place but this to supply these settle- 
ments ; at least none so convenient. A great deal 
of timber will also come down the Crow Wing River, 
which is a large stream, navigable three months in 
the year. Arrangements are complete for building a 
steamboat the ensuing winter, at this very place, to 
begin running in the spring as far up as Ojibeway. 
Next season there will be a daily line of stages be- 
tween this and St. Paul. I understand also that it 
is intended next summer to connect Crow Wing 
with the flourishing town of Superior by stage. It 
will require considerable energy to do this thing ; 
but if it can be done, it will be a great blessing to 
the traveller as well as a profit to the town. The 
journey from St. Paul to Lake Superior via Crow 
Wing can then be performed in three days, while on 
the usual route it now occupies a week. Such are 
some of the favorable circumstances which corrobo- 
rate the expectation of the growth of this place. 
The southern or lower portion of the town is in- 
cluded within the Fort Ripley reserve, and though 
several residences are situated on it, no other build- 
ings can be put up without a license from the com- 
manding officer ; nor can any lots be sold from that 
portion until the reserve is cut down. With the 
upper part of the town it is different. Mr. C. H. 



70 MINNESOTA AND DACOTAH. 

Beaulieu, long a resident of the place, is the pro- 
prietor of that part, and has already, I am informed, 
made some extensive sales of lots. He is one of 
those lucky individuals, who have sagacity to locate 
on an available spot, and patience to wait the open- 
ing of a splendid fortune.^ 

My observation and experience in regard to town 
sites have taught me an important fact : that as much 
depends on the public spirit, unity of action, and zeal 
of the early proprietors, as upon the locality itself. 
The one is useless without these helps. General 
Washington wrote an able essay to prove the avail- 
ability of Norfolk, Ya., as the great commercial 
metropolis of the country. He speculated upon its 
being the great market for the West. His imagina- 
tion pictured out some such place as New York now 
is, as its future. The unequalled harbor of Norfolk, 
and the resources of the country all around it, ex- 
tending as far, almost, as thought could reach, might 
well have encouraged the theory of Washington. 
But munificence and energy and labor have built up 
many cities since then, which had not half the 
natural advantages of Norfolk, while Norfolk is far 
behind. A little lack of enterprise, a little lack of 
harmony and liberality, may, in the early days of 
a town, divert business and improvements from a 
good location, till in a short time an unheard-of and 

1 Since this letter was written, Mr. Thomas Cathcart has purchased 
a valuable claim opposite Crow AVing at the mouth of the river^ 
which I should think was an available town site. 



THE TOWN OF CROW WING. 71 

inferior place totally eclipses it. Knowing this to 
be the case, I have been careful in my previous let- 
ters not to give too much importance to many of the 
town sites which have been commended to me along 
my journey. I do not discover any of these retard- 
ing circumstances about Crow Wing. I must con- 
clude at this paragraph, however, in order to take 
a horseback ride to the Chippewa agency. In my 
next I intend to say something about the Indians, 
pine timber, and the country above here in general. 



LETTER VII. 

CHIPPEWA mDIANS.— HOLE-IN-THE-DAY. 

Description of the Chippewa tribes — Their habits and customs — 
Mission at Gull Lake — Progress in farming — Visit to Hole-in- 
the-day — His enlightened character — Reflections on Indian cha- 
racter, and the practicability of their civilization — Their educa- 
tion — Mr. Manypenny's exertions. 

Crow Wing, October, 1856. 
I CONSIDER myself exceedingly fortunate in hav- 
ing had a good opportunity for observing the con- 
dition of the Chippewa Indians. Sometime ago I 
saw enough of the Indians in another part of the 
country to gratify my curiosity as to their appear- 
ance and habits ; and as I have always felt a pecu- 
liar interest in their destiny, my present observations 
have been w^ith a view to derive information as to 
the best means for their improvement. The whole 
number of Chippewas in Minnesota is not much over 
2200. They are divided into several bands, each 
band being located a considerable distance from the 
other. The Mississippi band live on their reserva- 
tion, which begins a few miles above here across the 
river, while the Pillagor and Lake Winnibigoshish 
bands are some three hundred miles further north. 
The agency of the Chippewas is on the reservation 

(72) 



THE CHIPPEWA INDIANS. 73 

referred to, a little north of the Crow Wing River, 
and six miles distant from this town. To come 
down more to particulars, however, and adopt words 
which people here would use, I might say that the 
agency is on Gull River, a very clear and pretty 
stream, which flows from a lake of that name, into 
the Crow Wing. I passed the agency yesterday, 
and two miles beyond, in order to visit Pug-o-na- 
ke-shick, or Hole-in-the-day, the principal and 
hereditary chief of the Chippewas. Mr. Herriman, 
tlie agent, resides at the agency, in compliance with 
the regulation of the Indian bureau, which requires 
agents to reside among the Indians. I strongly 
suspect there are many people who would think it 
unsafe to travel alone among the Chippewas. But 
people who live about here would ridicule the idea 
of being afraid of violence or the slightest molesta- 
tion from them, unless indeed the fellows were 
intoxicated. For my part, a walk on Boston com- 
mon on a summer morning could not seem more 
quiet and safe than a ramble on horseback among 
the homes of these Indians. I spoke to a good 
many. Though naturally reserved and silent, they 
return a friendly salutation with a pleasant smile. 

Their old costume is still retained as a general 
thing. The blanket is still worn instead of coats. 
Sometimes the men wear leggins, but often go with 
their legs naked. A band is generally worn upon 
the head with some ornament upon it. A feather 
of the war eagle worn in the head-band of a brave, 



<4 MINNESOTA AND DACOTAII. 

denotes that he has taken the scalp of an enemy or 
performed some rare feat of daring. An Indian 
does not consider himself in full dress without his 
war hatchet or weapons. I meet many with long- 
stemmed pipes, wdiich are also regarded as an orna- 
mental part of dress. They appear pleased to have 
anything worn about them attract attention. They 
are of good size, taller than the Winnebagoes, and 
of much lighter complexion than tribes living five 
hundred miles further south. Herein the philosopher 
on the cooking of men is confirmed. Their hair is 
black, long, and straight ; and some are really good- 
looking. There are but few who still paint. Those 
in mourning paint their faces black. What I have 
seen of their houses raises high hopes of their ad- 
vancement in civilization. We can now begin to 
lay aside the word lodge and say house. Over a 
year ago, Mr. Herriman promised every one a good 
cooking stove who would build himself a comfortable 
house. This promise had a good effect, for several 
houses were built. But the want of windows and 
several other conveniences, which are proper fix- 
tures, gives their dwellings a desolate appearance 
to one who looks to a higher standard of comfort. 
Of course I saw a few of the men at the store (for 
there is a store at the agency), spending their time, 
as too many white men do in country villages. 
Eight miles beyond the agency, on Gull Lake, is a 
mission. It has been under the charge of Rev. J. 
L. Breck, a gentleman of high culture, and whose 



THE ClUrPEWA iiSJJlA.NS. io 

enlightened and humane exertions in behalf of the 
Indians have received much commendation both 
from the agent and Gov. Gorman, the Superin- 
tendent. He has been at the mission four years. 
While he had the benefit of the school-fund, he had 
in his school, under his own roof, 35 pupils ; since 
that Avas withheld, the number of pupils has been 
22. Mr. Breck will soon remove to Leech Lake, 
and will be succeeded by a gentleman who comes 
well recommended from a theological institution in 
Wisconsin. I desired very much to go as far as 
the mission, but from Crow Wing and back it would 
have been thirty miles, and it was otherwise incon- 
venient on account of the rain. The Indians are 
beginning to farm a little. They begin with gar- 
dens. Their support is chiefly from the annuities 
paid by the United States, which are principally 
received in some sort of dry goods. The goods are 
furnished by contract, and the price paid for them 
is about enough, if all stories are true. They also 
derive some support from their fur hunts and by fish- 
ing. Buffaloes are still hunted successfully beyond 
the Red River of the North. They bring home the 
furs, and also the best parts of the meat. The 
meat is preserved by being partially cooked in buf- 
falo fat, cut into small pieces^ and sewed up very 
tight in the hide of the animal. It is called 2^(???i- 
miean, and sells here for twenty-five cents a pound. 
It is broken to pieces like pork scraps, and the 
Indians regard it as a great luxury. 



76 MINNESOTA AND DACOTAII. 

From the agency I hastened on to see Hole-in- 
the-day (Pug-o-na-ke-shick, his Indian name, means, 
literally, Hole-in-the-sky). He is a famous chief, 
having in his youth distinguished himself for bold 
exploits and severe endurance. But what most en- 
titles him to attention is the very exemplary course 
he has pursued in attempting to carry out the wishes 
of the government in bringing his race to the habits 
of civilized life. It was principally through his in- 
fluence that a treaty was made between his tribe 
and the United States, and after it went into effect 
he turned his attention to farming. Previous to 
the treaty he was supported as chief by the tribal 
revenue. He has succeeded well. Over a year 
ago the receipts of w^hat he sold from his farm, 
aside from what his household needed, amounted to 
over two hundred dollars. At length, after riding a 
mile and a half without passing a habitation, over a 
fertile prairie, I came in sight of his house. He 
lives near a small lake, and north of him is a large 
belt of heavy pine timber. He has an excellent 
farm, well fenced and well cultivated. His house 
is in cottage style, and of considerable length ; 
spacious, neat, and well furnished. Arriving at 
the door I dismounted, and inquired of his squaw 
if he was at home. She sent her little girl out into 
the field to call him. There, indeed, in his corn- 
field, was he at work. He met me very cordially, 
and invited me into a room, where he had an inter- 
preter. We held a protracted and agreeable con- 



A VISIT TO HOLE-IN-THE-DAY. ^ 1 

versation on Indian matters. He invited me to 
dine with him, and nothing but want of time pre- 
vented my accepting his polite invitation. He was 
very neatly dressed, and is quite prepossessing in 
his appearance. He is younger than I supposed 
before seeing him. I judge him to be about thirty- 
four. He is a man of strong sense, of great saga- 
city, and considerable ambition. 

There is no reason why the Indians should not 
speedily become civilized. Those who have longest 
lived amongst them, and who best understand their 
character, tell me so. I fully believe it. The In- 
dian follows his wild habits because he has been 
educated to do so. The education of habit, familiar 
from infancy, and the influence of tradition, lead him 
to the hunt, and as much to despise manual labor. 
He does what he has been taught to consider as 
noble and honorable, and that is what the most en- 
lightened do. Certainly his course of life is the 
most severe and exposed; it is not for comfort that 
he adheres to his wild habits. He regards it as 
noble to slay his hereditary foe. Hence the troubles 
which occasionally break out between the Chippewas 
and the Sioux. To gain the applause of their tribe 
they will incur almost any danger, and undergo 
almost any privation. Thus, we see that for those 
objects which their education has taught them to 
regard as first and best, they will sacrifice all their 
comforts. They have sense enough, and ambition 
enough, and fortitude enough. To those they love 



78 Ml.NXESOTA AND DACOTAH. 

they are affectionate almost to excess. Only direct 
their ambition in the proper way, and they will at 
once rise. Teach them that it is noble to produce 
something useful by their labor, and to unite with 
the great family of man to expand arts and to im- 
prove the immortal mind — teach them that it is 
noble, that there is more applause to be gained by 
it, as well as comfort, and they will change in a 
generation. They will then apply themselves to 
civilization with Spartan zeal and with Spartan 
virtues. 

In a communication to the secretary of war by 
Gen. Cass in 1821, relative to his expedition to the 
sources of the Mississippi, he makes the following 
interesting extract from the journal of Mr. Doty, 
a gentleman who accompanied the expedition : — 
" The Indians of the upper country consider those 
of the Fond-du-Lac as very stupid and dull, being 
but little given to war. They count the Sioux their 
enemies, but have heretofore made few war excur- 
sions. 

" Having been frequently reprimanded by some 
of the more vigilant Indians of the north, and 
charged with cowardice, and an utter disregard for 
the event of the war, thirteen men of this tribe, 
last season, determined to retrieve the character of 
their nation, by making an excursion against the 
Sioux. Accordingly, without consulting the other 
Indians, they secretly departed and penetrated far 
into the Sioux country. Unexpectediy, at night.. 



THE CHIPPEWA INDIANS. 79 

they came upon a party of the Sioux, amounting to 
near one hundred men, and immediately began to 
prepare for battle. They encamped a short distance 
from the Sioux, and during the night dug holes in 
the ground into which they might retreat and fight 
to the last extremity. They appointed one of their 
number (the youngest) to take a station at a distance 
and witness the struggle, and instructed him, when 
they were all slain, to make his escape to their own 
land, and relate the circumstances under which they 
had fallen. 

" Early in the morning they attacked the Sioux 
in their camp, who, immediately sallying out upon 
them, forced them back to the last place of retreat 
they had resolved upon. They fought desperately. 
More than twice their own number were killed before 
they had lost their lives. Eight of them were 
tomahawked in the holes to which they had retreat- 
ed ; the other four fell on the field. The thirteenth 
returned home, according to the directions he had 
received, and related the foregoing circumstances to 
his tribe. They mourned their death ; but delighted 
with the bravery of their friends, unexampled in 
modern times, they were happy in their grief. 

" This account I received of the very Indian who 
was of the party and had escaped." — [See School- 
craft, p. 431.] 1 

^Pride is a characteristic trait in Indian character. On a recent 
occasion when several bands of the Chippewas were at Washington 
to negotiate a treaty with the United States, they had an interview 



80 MINNESOTA AND DACOTAH. 

In the contest between the Athenians and the 
Dorians, an oracle had declared that the side would 
triumph whose king should fall. Codrus the Athe- 
nian king, to be more sure of sacrificing himself, 
assumed the dress of a peasant, and was soon killed ; 
and the event soon spread dismay among the ene- 
mies of Athens. His patriotism was accounted so 
great, that the Athenians declared that there was 
no man worthy to be his successor, and so abolished 
the monarchy. I think the history of the Indians 
would show instances of heroism as praiseworthy 
as can be found in the annals of the ancients. Let 
it be remembered, too, that the Spartans knew that 
an imperishable literature would hand down their 
valor to the praise of the world through all the 
future. But the Indian looked for the preservation 
of his exploits only in the songs and the traditional 
stories of his tribe. 

I allude to these traits because I think it will be 
agreed, that whatever race possesses those elements 
of character which lead them to pursue with zeal 
and courage things they have been taught to regard 

with their Great Father the President. He received them in the 
spacious East Room of the executive mansion, in the presence of a 
large collection of gentlemen who had gathered to witness the occa- 
sion. Each chief made a speech to the President, which was inter- 
preted as they spoke. When it came to the turn of Eshkibogikoj 
(Flat Mouth) that venerable chief began with great dignity, saying: 
" Father ! Two great men have met !" Here he paused to let the sen- 
tence be interpreted. His exordium amused not only the whites but 
the Indians. 



THE CJIIPPEWA INDIANS. 81 

most creditable, is capable of being civilized. We 
now pay the Indian for his lands in agricultural 
tools, in muskets and powder, in blankets and cheap 
calico — and in education ; but the smallest item is 
education. If half the money which the govern- 
ment is liable to pay for Indian troubles during 
the last year, could be appropriated to a proper 
system of education, we should hear of no more 
serious Indian wars. But I have not time to pur- 
sue the subject. I will say, however, that the pre- 
sent commissioner of Indian affairs, Mr. Manypenny, 
is doing a very good work in advancing their con- 
dition. The press ought to bestow some attention 
on the subject. There are nearly 400,000 Indians 
within the United States and territories. If the 
philanthropy of the age could spare the blacks for 
a little while, and help civilize the Indians, it would 
be better for all parties. Here is an enterprise 
for genuine humanity. 



LETTER VIII. 

LUMBERING INTERESTS. 

Lumber as an element of wealth — Quality of Minnesota lumber — 
Locality of its growth — The great pineries — Trespasses on govern- 
ment land — How the lumbermen elude the governraent-^Yalue of 
lumber — Character of the practical lumberman — Transportation of 
lumber on rafts. 

Crow "Wing, October, 1856. 
It seems to have been more difficult for countries 
which abound in precious metals to attain to great 
prosperity than for a rich man to secure eternal fe- 
licity. Witness, for instance, the sluggish growth 
and degenerate civilization of the South American 
states. But timber is a fundamental element of co- 
lonial growth. The mines of Potosi cannot com- 
pare with it in value. An abundance of timber and 
a superabundance of it are two very different 
things. Some of the Middle, and what Avere once 
Western States, were originally covered with forests. 
So of the greater part of New England. In Ohio 
and in Michigan timber has been an encumbrance ; 
for there was great labor to be performed by the 
settler in clearing the land and preparing it for the 
plough; and at this day we see in travelling through 
each of those states, as well as in Kentuck}^ Ten- 

(82) 



LUMBERING INTERESTS. 83 

nessee, and Missouri, fields planted amidst heavy 
timber trees which have been belted that they may 
wither and die. • By an abundance of timber I mean 
an ample supply not only for domestic but foreign 
market ; and with this understanding of the word I 
will repeat what has often been said, and what I 
suppose is well known, that Minnesota has an 
abundance of excellent timber. Unlike the gorgeous 
forests in New Hampshire, which behind high cliffs 
and mountain fastnesses defy the woodman, the 
timber of Minnesota grows in the valleys of her 
great rivers and upon the banks of their numerous 
tributaries. It is thus easily shipped to a distant 
market ; while the great body of the land, not en- 
cumbered with it, but naked, is ready for the plough 
and for the seed. Most of the timber which grows 
in the region below this point is hard wood, such as 
elm, maple, oak, and ash. 

There is considerable scrub oak also thinly scat- 
tered over large portions of fertile prairie. To a 
casual observer these oaks, from their stunted ap- 
pearance, would be taken as evidence of poor soil. 
But the soil is not the cause of their scrubby looks. 
It is the devouring fires which annually sweep over 
the plains with brilliant though terrific aspect, and 
which are fed by the luxuriant grass grown on that 
same soil. If the oaks did not draw uncommon 
nourishment from the soil, it must be dij05cult for 
them to survive such scorchings. It is a consoling 
thought that these fires cease in proportion as the 



84 MINNESOTA AND DACOTAII. 

country is settled up. The rock maple is indige- 
nous to the soil ; and the Indians have long been in 
the habit of making sugar from its sap. The tim- 
ber most used for fences is tamarack. The pineries 
may be said to begin at the mouth of the Crow 
Wing River ; though there is a great supply on the 
Rum River. For upwards of a hundred miles above 
here on the Mississippi — more or less dense, the 
pine forests extend. Captain John Pope, in the in- 
teresting report of his expedition to the Red River 
of the North, in 1849, says — " The pineries of the 
upper Mississippi are mostly upon its tributaries, 
and I think are not found on the west side further 
south than the parallel of 46° N. latitude." (The 
latitude of this place is 46° 16' 50^'.) ''They 
alternate, even where most abundant, with much 
larger tracts of fertile country." Again he says — 
" As might be expected from its alluvial character, 
there is no pine timber in the valley of the Red 
River, but the oak and elm there attain to a size 
which I do not think^I have ever seen elsewhere." In 
another place he remarks that " the pineries along 
the Crow Wing River are among the most extensive 
and valuable found on the tributaries of the Missis- 
sippi." Mr. Schoolcraft says of this river, "the 
whole region is noted for its pine timber." In 
speaking of the country on the St. Louis River, a 
few miles from where it empties into Lake Superior, 
the same gentleman remarks : " The growth of the 
forest is pines, hemlock, spruce, birch, oak, and 



LUMBERING INTl^KE.ST.-;. 85 

maple." I had heard considerable about Minnesota 
lumber, it is true, but I was not prepared to see the 
pine timber so valuable and heavy as it is above and 
about here. The trees are of large growth, straight 
and smooth. They are not surpassed by 

" The tallest pine, 
Hewn on Norwegian hills to bo the mast 
Of some great admiral." 

Oujus est solum ejus est usque ad coelum — whose 
the soil, his to the sky — is a maxim in these pine 
regions of literal importance. There is something 
besides utility also to be mentioned in this connec- 
tion. With the exception of swamps, which are few 
and far between, the timber land has all the beauty 
of a sylvan grove. The entire absence of under- 
brush and decayed logs lends ornament and attrac- 
tion to the woods. They are more like the groves 
around a mansion in their neat and cheerful appear- 
ance ; and awaken reflection on the Muses and tlie 
dialogues of philosophers rather than apprehension 
of wild beasts and serpents. 

The relative importance of the lumber business 
would hardly be estimated by a stranger. It has 
been carried on for at least six years ; and consid- 
erable has found its way as far down as St. Louis. 
It will be asked, I imagine, if all this timber land, 
especially the pine, has been sold by the govern- 
ment ; and if not, how it happens that men cut it 
down and sell it ? I will answer this. The great 
region of pineries has not yet been surveyed, much 
8 



86 MINNESOTA AND DACOTAII. 

less sold by the government. But notwithstanding 
this, men have cut it in large quantities, sold it into 
a greedy market, and made money, if not fortunes 
in the business. As a sort of colorable excuse for 
cutting timber, those employed in the business often 
make a preemption claim on land covered with it, 
and many people suppose they have the right to cut as 
much as they please after the incipient steps towards 
preemption. But this is not so. All that a claim- 
ant can do" in this respect is to cut wood enough for 
his fuel, and timber enough for his own building 
purposes, until he receives a patent from the gov- 
ernment. Of course it is altogether reasonable and 
proper that men should be precluded from doing so 
until their title in the soil is complete. Because, until 
a preemption claim is perfect, or, until the land has 
been acquired by some legal title, it is not certain 
that the claimant will ultimately secure it or pay 
any money to the government. But does not the 
government do anything to prevent these tres- 
passes ? Yes, but all its attempts are baffled. 

For example, last spring a large quantity of 
splendid lumber was seized by the United States 
marshal and sold at public auction. It was bid off 
by the lumbermen themselves, who had formed a 
combination to prevent its falling into the hands of 
other purchasers. This combination had no resist- 
ance as I am aware of in the public opinion of the 
territory, and the timber was sold to those who had 
it cut at a price so far below its value that it didn't 



LUMBERING INTERESTS. 87 

pay the expense of the legal proceedings on the part 
of the government. This is accounted for in the 
fact of the cxhaustless quantity of pine timber 
towards the north ; in the demand for it when 
sawed ; and in the disposition to protect enter- 
prising men, though technically trespassers, who 
penetrate into the forest in the winter at great ex- 
pense, and whose standing and credit are some 
guaranty of their ultimate responsibility to the 
government, should they not perfect their titles. 
The business of getting out the timber is carried on 
in the winter, and affords employment for a large 
number of athletic young men. The price of timber, 
I ascertained of Mr. P. D. Pratt, a dealer at St. 
Paul, is, for the best, $30 per M. ; for common, $20. 
Most people have seen or been told sometliing of 
the lumbermen of Maine. Allowing this to be so, it 
will not be difficult to comprehend the condition and 
character of the lumbermen of Minnesota and the 
northwest. But if there is anybody who fancies 
them to be a set of laborers, such as build our rail- 
roads and dig coal and minerals, he is greatly mis- 
taken. The difference is in birth and education ; 
between foreigners and native-born citizens. A 
difference not in rights and merits, so much as in 
habits and character. Born on American soil, they 
have attended our common schools, and have the 
bearing and independence of sovereigns. None but 
very vigorous men can endure, or at least attempt 
to endure, the exposure of living in the woods all 



88 MINNKSUTA AND DACOTA II. 

"winter and s^Yinging the axe ; though by proper 
care of themselves, such exercise is conducive to 
health and strength. Accordingly we find the lum- 
berman — I mean of course the practical lumber- 
man — to be a thick-set, muscular young man, Avith 
a bright eye and florid cheek ; in short, one whom 
we would call a double-fisted fellow. He is not one 
of your California boys, but more affable and do- 
mestic, with a shorter beard, and not so great a pro- 
fusion of weapons. His dress is snug and plain — 
the regular pioneer costume of boots over the pants, 
and a thick red shirt in lieu of a coat. His capital 
stock is his health and his hands. When in em- 
ployment he is economical and lays up his wages. 
When out of employment and in town, his money 
generally goes freely. As a class, the lumbermen 
are intelligent. They are strong talkers, for they 
put in a good many of the larger sort of words ; 
and from their pungent satire and sledge-hammer 
style of reasoning, are by no means very facile dis- 
putants. They are preeminently jokers. This is 
as they appear on their way to the w^oods. During 
the season of their active labor they usually spend 
the evening, after a day of hard w^ork, in story- 
telling or in a game of euchre. Their wages amount 
to about two dollars a day, exclusive of board. 
They have good living in the woods, the provisions, 
which are furnished on an ample scale, being served 
bv male cooks. 

While on the subject of lumber, which may possi- 



LUxMBERING INTERESTS. 89 

bly interest some people who wish to redeem the 
fortunes they have lately lost in Maine lumber, I 
ought not to leave unmentioned the valuable car- 
goes of it which are floated down the Mississippi. 
When coming up in the boat I was astonished to see 
such stupendous rafts. Large logs are transported 
by being made into rafts. At a landing where the 
boat stopped, I on one occasion attempted to esti- 
mate the number of logs comprised in one of these 
marine novelties, and found it to be about eight 
hundred ; the logs were large, and were worth from 
five to six dollars each. Here then was a raft of 
timber worth at least $4000. They are navigated 
by about a dozen men, with large paddles attached 
at either end of the raft, which serve to propel and 
steer. Often, in addition to the logs, the rafts are 
laden with valuable freights of sawed lumber. 
Screens are built as a protection against wind, and 
a caboose stands somewhere in the centre, or accord- 
ing to western parlance it might be called a cabin. 
Sometimes the raft will be running in a fine current ; 
then only a couple of hands are on the watch and at 
the helm. The rest are seen either loitering about 
observing the country, or reclining, snugly wrapped 
up in their blankets. Some of these rafts must cover 
as much as two acres. Birnam Wood coming to 
Dunsinane was not a much greater phenomenon. 
8* 



LETTER IX. 

SHORES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 

Description of the country around Lake Superior — Minerals — Locality 
of a commercial city — New land districts — Buchanan — Ojibeway — 
Explorations to the sources of the Mississippi — Henry R. School- 
craft — M. Nicollet's report — Resources of the country above Crow 
Wing. 

Crow AVing, October 7, 1856. 
There is one very important section of this ter- 
ritory that I have not yet alluded to. I mean that 
part which borders on Lake Superior. This calls 
to mind that there is such a place as Superior City. 
But that is in Wisconsin, not in Minnesota. From 
that city (so called, yet city in earnest it is like to 
be) to the nearest point in this territory the distance 
by water is twelve miles. The St. Louis River is the 
dividing line for many miles between Minnesota and 
Wisconsin. The country round about this greatest 
of inland seas is not the most fertile. It is some- 
what bleak, on the northern shore especially, but is 
nevertheless fat in minerals. On the banks of the 
St. Louis River the soil is described, by the earliest 
explorers as well as latest visiters, to be good. The 
river itself, though it contains a large volume of 
water, is not adapted to navigation, on account of 
its rapids. 

(90) 



SHORES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 91 

Those who have sailed across Lake Superior to 
the neighborhood of Fond-du-Lac appear to have 
been charmed by the scenery of its magnificent 
islands and its rock-bound shores. Most people, 
I suppose, have heard of its beautiful cluster of 
islands called the Twelve Apostles. One peculiar 
phenomenon often mentioned is the boisterous con- 
dition of its waters at the shore, which occurs when 
the lake itself is perfectly calm. The water is said 
to foam and dash so furiously as to make it almost 
perilous to land in a small boat. This would seem 
to be produced by some movement of the waters 
similar to the flow of the tide ; and perhaps the 
dashing after all is not much more tumultuous 
than is seen on a summer afternoon under the rocks 
of Nahant, or along the serene coast at Phillips 
Beach. 

The resources of that part of the territory border- 
ing on the lake, however, are sufficient to induce an 
extensive, if not a rapid, settlement of the country. 
The copper mines afford occupation for thousands 
of people now. I have known a young man to clear 
^40 a month in getting out the ore. But the labor 
is hard. Somewhere near Fond-du-Lac is destined 
to be a great commercial city. Whether it will be 
at Superior, which has now got the start of all other 
places, or whether it will be at some point within 
this territory, is more than can be known at present. 
But a great town there is to be, sooner or later ; and 
for this reason, that the distance from Buifalo to 



92 MINNESOTA AND DACOTAH. 

Fond-du-Lac by navigation is about the same as from 
Buffalo to Chicago, affording, therefore, as good 
facilities for water transportation of merchandise 
between Fond-du-Lac and the East, as between Chi- 
cago and the East. Moreover, the development of 
this new agricultural world Avill tend to that result. 
A railroad will then run from that point directly 
west, crossing the upper Mississippi as also the Red 
River of the North at the head of its navigation, 
which is at the mouth of the Sioux Wood River. 

During the last summer, congress established two 
new land districts in the upper part of the territory, 
called the north-eastern and the north-western. The 
former includes the country lying on Lake Superior, 
and its land office has been located at Buchanan, a 
new place just started on the shore of the lake. 
The land office for the north-western district has 
been located at Ojibeway, a town site situated sixty 
miles above here, on the Mississippi, near the mouth 
of Muddy River. This district includes the head 
waters of the Mississippi, and extends west as far 
as the Red River of the North. The surveyors have 
been engaged in either district only a few weeks. 
I don't expect there will be any land offered for sale 
in either district till spring. While on the subject 
of land offices, let me observe that the appointments 
in them are among the most lucrative under the 
patronage of the general government. There is a 
register and receiver for each office. They have, 
each, $500 per annum and fees ; the whole not to 



SHORES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 93 

exceed $3000. Aside from the official fees, they 
get much more for private services. Thej have 
more or less evidence to reduce to writing in nearly 
every preemption case, for which the general land 
office permits them to receive private compensation. 
It is rather necessary that the local land officers 
should be lawyers, as they have frequent occasion 
to decide on litigated land claims. 

Many explorations have been made of the region 
around the head waters of the Mississippi, the re- 
ports of wdiich have conveyed to the world attractive 
information of the country, but information which 
only approximated to accuracy. In 1806, Lieut. 
Pike explored the river as far as Turtle Lake, and 
returned, thinking, good easy man, full surely he 
had discovered the real source of the river, and yet 
the source of the river was more than a hundred 
miles off in another direction. Lewis and Clarke 
had ascended the river previously. In 1820, Gene- 
ral Cass, accompanied by Mr. Schoolcraft, explored 
the river to Cass Lake ; being obliged to stop there 
on account of the low stage of water which they 
heard existed a few days' journey beyond. Again, 
in 1832, Mr. Schoolcraft, then superintendent of 
Indian affairs, made another expedition, which re- 
sulted in his discovery of the true sources of the 
river ; it being a lake w^iich he named Itasca. It 
has been said that he manufactured this beautiful 
word out of the last syllables of Veritas and the first 
syllable of caput (the true head). But I have been 



94 MINNESOTA AND DACOTAH. 

told that the word was suggested to his mind by an 
Indian word signifying breast. Dr. Johnson says, 
that a traveller in order to bring back knowledge 
should take knowledge with him. That is, that he 
should have posted himself up to some extent on 
the country he visits. I hope it will not require 
an affidavit for me to prove that I availed myself 
of the suggestion. But I must say I have found 
great pleasure and profit in perusing Mr. School- 
craft's narratives of both his expeditions. Though 
he had the encouragement of the government, his 
undertaking was surrounded by many obstacles and 
some dangers. His account of the whole country 
is pleasant and instructive to the reader, and shows 
that all he saw produced on his mind a favorable 
impression. The arduous services of this gentlemt^n 
as an explorer have been of great advantage to the 
country, and his fine literary talents have given his 
adventures an historic fame. Not less deserving of 
applause either have been his efforts to promote the 
welfare of the Indians. He now lives in affluent 
circumstances at Washington, and, though suffering 
under some bodily infirmities, appears (or did when 
I saw him) to enjoy life with that serene and ra- 
tional happiness which springs from useful employ- 
ment, and a consciousness that past opportunities 
have been improved. 

'•For he lives twice who can at once employ 
The present well and e'en the past enjoy." 



SHORES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 95 

There have been other explorations of this part 
of tlie country at different times by Messrs. Long, 
Nicollet, and Pope. M. Nicollet Avas accompanied 
and assisted by Mr. (then Lieutenant) Fremont. The 
reports made of these explorations afford informa- 
tion which, if extensively known among the people, 
would tend to direct a larger emigration into the 
upper part of the territory. They often launch off 
into exclamations as to the beautiful surface of the 
country ; while their account of native fruits and 
the bracing climate and fertile soil picture to the 
imagination all the elements of a home. 

M. Nicollet was a foreign gentleman who pos- 
sessed superior scientific knowledge and a rare zeal 
to prosecute researches. He made an exploration 
through the valley of the St. Peter's and the Mis- 
souri ; and from thence to the sources of the Missis- 
sippi, in the year 1839. The official report which 
he made is a valuable document, but difficult to be 
obtained. I shall therefore make a few extracts 
from it. I should here remark that M. Nicollet died 
before Lc had completed the introduction to his re- 
port. "The Mississippi," he says, "holds its own 
from its very origin ; for it is not necessary to sup- 
pose, as has been done, that Lake Itasca may be 
supplied with invisible sources, to justify the charac- 
ter of a remarkable stream, which it assumes at its 
issue from this lake. There are five creeks that fall 
into it, formed by innumerable streamlets oozing 
from the clay-beds at the bases of the hills, that 



96 MINNESOTA AND DACOTAII. 

consist of an accumulation of sand, gravel, and clay, 
intermixed Avith erratic fragments ; being a more 
prominent portion of the great erratic deposit pre- 
viously described, and which here is known by the 
name of ' Hauteurs des Terres' — heights of land. 

" These elevations are commonly flat at top, va- 
rvino; in heio-ht from 85 to 100 feet above the level 
of the surrounding waters. They are covered with 
thick forests, in which coniferous plants predomi- 
nate. South of Itasca Lake, they form a semicir- 
cular region with a boggy bottom, extending to the 
south-west a distance of several miles ; thence these 
Hauteurs des Terres ascend to the north-west and 
north; and then, stretching to the north-east and 
east, through the zone between 47° and 48° of lati- 
tude, make the dividing ridge between the waters 
that empty into Hudson's Bay and those which dis- 
charge themselves into the Gulf of Mexico. The 
principal group of these Hauteurs des Terres is 
subdivided into several ramifications, varying in ex- 
tent, elevation, and course, so as to determine the 
hydrographical basins of all the innumerable lakes 
and rivers that so peculiarly characterize this region 
of country. 

" One of these ramifications extends in a south- 
erly direction under the name of Coteau du Grand 
Bois ; and it is this which separates the Mississippi 
streams from those of the Red River of the North. 

" The waters supplied by the north flank of these 
heights of land — still on the south side of Lake 



SHORES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 97 

Itasca — give origin to the five creeks of which I 
have spoken above. These are the waters which I 
consider to be the utmost sources of the Mississippi. 
Those that flow from the southern side of the same 
heights, and empty themselves into Elbow Lake, 
are the utmost sources of the Ked River of the 
North ; so that the most remote feeders of Hudson's 
Bay and the Gulf of Mexico are closely approxima- 
ted to each other." 

Of the country above Crow Wing, he makes the 
followino; observations, which are not less interestina: 
than instructive: "Over the whole route which I 
traversed after leaving CroAV Wing River, the country 
has a different aspect from that which the banks of 
the Mississippi above the falls present. The forests 
are denser and more varied ; the soil, which is alter- 
nately sandy, gravelly, clayey, and loamy, is, gene- 
rally speaking, lighter excepting on the shores of 
some of the larger lakes. The uplands are covered 
with white and yellow pines, spruce and birch ; and 
the wet lowlands by the American larch and the 
willow. On the slopes of sandy hills, the American 
aspen, the canoe birch (white birch), with a species 
of birch of dwarfish growth, the alder, and wild 
rose, extend to the very margin of the river. On 
the borders of the larger lakes, where the soil is 
generally better, we find the sugar maple, the black 
and bar oaks (also named overcup white oak, but 
differing from the white oak), the elm, ash, lime tree, 
&c. Generally speaking, however, this wood-land 
9 



98 MINNESOTA AND DACOTAH. 

does not extend back farther than a mile from the 
lakes. The white cedar, the hemlock, spruce, pine, 
and fir, are occasionally found ; but the red cedar 
is scarce throughout this region, and none, perhaps, 
are to be seen but on islands of those lakes called 
by the Indians Red Cedar Lakes. The shrubbery 
consists principally of the wild rose, hawthorn, and 
wild plum ; and raspberries, blackberries, straw- 
berries, and cranberries are abundant. 

*' The aspect of the country is: greatly varied by 
hills, dales, copses, small prairies, and a great num- 
ber of lakes ; the whole of which I do not pretend 
to have laid down on my map. * * * * The lakes 
to which I have just alluded are distributed in sepa- 
rate groups, or are arranged in prolonged chains 
along the rivers, and not unfrequently attached to 
each other by gentle rapids. It has seemed to me 
that they diminish in extent on both sides of the 
Mississippi, as we proceed southwardly, as far as 
43° of north latitude ; and this observation extends 
to the Arctic region, commencing at Bear's Lake, 
or Slave Lake, Winnipeg Lake, &c. It may be 
further remarked that the basins of these lakes have 
a sufficient depth to leave no doubt that they will 
remain characteristic features of the country for a 
long time to come. Several species of fish abound 
in them. The white fish [Corregoniis albus) is found 
in all the deep lakes west of the Mississippi — and, 
indeed, from Lake Erie to the Polar Sea. That 
which is taken in Leech Lake is said by amateurs 



SHORES OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 99 

to be more highly flavored than even that of Lake 
Superior, and weighs from three to ten pounds. * * * 
Of all the Indian nations that I have visited, the 
Chippewas, inhabiting the country about the sources 
of the Mississippi, are decidedly the most favored. 
Besides their natural resources (to which I have 
already referred) of fish, wild rice, and maple sugar, 
with the addition of an abundance of game, the 
climate is found to be well adapted to the culture 
of corn, wheat, barley, oats, and pulse. The potato 
is of superior quality to that of the Middle States 
of the Union. In a trading point of view, the hunt 
is very profitable. The bear, the deer and elk, the 
wolf, the fox, the wolverine, the fisher racoon, musk- 
rat, mink, otter, marten, weasel, and a few remain- 
ing beavers, are the principal articles of this trafiic." 
(pp. 58, 64.) To those who are desirous of perusing 
this valuable report, and who have access to the 
congressional documents, I would say that it may 
be found in Senate Document 237, 2d Session of 
26th Congress. 



LETTER X. 

VALLEY OF THE RED RIVER OF THE NORTH. 

Climate of Minnesota — The settlement at Pembina — St. Joseph — 
Col. Smith's expedition — Red River of the North — Fur trade — Red 
River Settlement — The Hudson's Bay Company — Ex-Gov. Ram- 
sey's observations — Dacotah. 

Crow Wing, October, 1856. 
A CELEBRATED geographer of the first century 
wrote, " Germany is indeed habitable, but is unin- 
habited on account of the cold." I am not so cer- 
tain, but some people have a similar idea of the 
upper portion of Minnesota. If there are any, 
however, thus distrustful of its climate, they proba- 
bly live out of the territory. I have no means of 
knowing what the climate is here in winter, except 
from hearsay and general principles. It seems to 
be an approved theory, that the farther we approach 
the west in a northern latitude the milder becomes 
the winter. The stage-drivers tell me that the snow 
does not fall to such a depth as in the northern 
part of New England ; that the weather is tolera- 
bly uniform ; and that the roads are at all times 
kept open and much travelled. After all, it is a 

great way before we come to the home of the Esqui- 

(100) 



VALLEY OF RED RIVER OF THE NORTH. 101 

maux, and the desert of ice where Sir John Frank- 
lin perished. 

I will here subjoin the following extract from a 
letter addressed to Gov. Stephens by the Hon. 
Henry M. Rice, the able delegate from Minnesota. 
It is dated 3d June, 1854 : 

'' Navigation of the Mississippi River closes from 
the 10th to the 25th of November, and opens from 
the 1st to the 10th of AjDril. That of the Red 
River of the North closes from the 1st to 15th No- 
vember, and opens from 10th to 25th April. I have 
often travelled in the winter from St. Paul to Crow 
Wing, a distance of one hundred and fifty miles, 
with a single horse and sled, without a track, and 
have never found the snow deep enough to impede 
my progress. I have also gone from Crow Wing, 
beyond the head w^aters of the Mississippi, to the 
waters of the Hudson's Bay, on foot and without 
snow-shoes. I spent one entire winter travelling 
throucrh that region, and never found the snow over 
eighteen inches deep, and seldom over nine inches. 

" For several years I had trading-posts extending 
from Lake Superior to the Red River of the North, 
from 46° to 49° north latitude, and never found the 
snow so deep as to prevent supplies being trans- 
ported from one post to another w^ith horses. One 
winter, north of Crow Wing, say 47° north latitude, 
I wintered about sixty head of horses and cattle 
without giving them food of any kind except such 
as they could procure themselves under the snow. 
9- 



102 MINNESOTA AND DACOTAII. 

Between the 45th and 49th degrees north latitude, 
the snow does not fall so deep as it does between 
the 40th and 45th degrees ; this is easily accounted 
for upon the same principle that in the fall they 
have frosts much earlier near the 40th than they 
do near the 45th degree. I say this in reference to 
the country watered by the Mississippi River. Owing 
to its altitude the atmosphere is dry beyond belief, 
which accounts for the absence of frosts in the fall, 
and for the small quantity of snow that falls in a 
country so far north. Voyageurs traverse the terri- 
tory from Lake Superior to the Missouri the entire 
winter with horses and sleds, having to make their 
own roads, and yet with heavy loads are not de- 
tained by snow. Lumbermen in great numbers 
winter in the nine regions of Minnesota with their 
teams, and I have never heard of their finding the 
snow too deep to prosecute their labors. I have 
known several winters when the snow at no time 
was over six inches deep." 

The Hon. H. H. Sibley, ex-delegate from Min- 
nesota, in a letter dated at Mendota says : " As our 
country is for the most part composed of prairie, it 
is of course much exposed to the action of the winds. 
It is, however, a peculiarity of our climate, that 
calms prevail during the cold weather of the winter 
months ; consequently, the snow does not drift to 
anything like the extent experienced in New Eng- 
land or northern New York. I have never believed 
that railroad communication in this territory would 



VALLEY OF RED IIIVER OF THE NORTH. 103 

be seriously impeded by the depth or drift of snow, 
unless, perhaps, in the extreme northern portion of 
it." (See Explorations and Surveys for the Pacific 
Railroad, L, 400.) 

A few facts in regard to the people who live four 
or five hundred miles to the north, will best illustrate 
the nature of the climate and its adaptedness to 
agriculture. 

It is common to say that settlements have not ex- 
tended beyond Crow Wing. This is only technically 
true. There is a settlement at Pembina, where the 
dividing line betv/een British America and the United 
States crosses the Red River of the North. It 
didn't extend there from our frontier, sui'e enough. 
If it extended from anywhere it must have been 
from the north, or along the confines of that mystic 
region called Rainy Lake. Pembina is said to have 
about 600 inhabitants. It is situated on the Pem- 
bina River. It is an Indian-French word meaning 
cranberry. Men live there who were born there, 
and it is in fact an old settlement. It w^as founded 
by British subjects, who thought they had located 
on British soil. The greater part of its inhabitants 
are half-breeds, who earn a comfortable livelihood 
in fur hunting and in farming. It sends two repre- 
sentatives and a councillor to the territorial legisla- 
ture. It is 460 miles north-west of St. Paul, and 
330 miles distant from this town. Notwithstanding 
the distance, there is considerable communication 
between the places. West of Pembina, about thirty 



104 MINNESOTA AND DACOTAH. 

miles, is a settlement called St. Joseph, situated near 
a large mythological body of water called Mini- 
wakan, or Devil's Lake ; and is one of the points 
where Col. Smith's expedition was intending to stop. 
This expedition to Avhich I refer, started out from 
Fort Snelling in the summer, to explore the country 
on both sides of the*Red River of the North as far 
as Pembina, and to report to the war department 
the best points for the establishment of a new military 
post. It is expected that Col. Smith will return by 
the first of next month ; and it is probable he will 
advise the erection of a post at Pembina. When 
that is done, if it is done, its effect will be to draw 
emigrants from the Red River settlement into Min- 
nesota. 

Now let me say a word about this Red River of 
the North, for it is beginning to be a great feature 
in this upper country. It runs north, and empties 
into Lake Winnipeg, which connects with Hudson's 
Bay by Nelson River. It is a muddy and sluggish 
stream, navigable to the mouth of Sioux Wood River 
for vessels of three feet draug-ht for four months in 
the year. So that the extent of its navigation 
within the territory alone (between Pembina and the 
mouth of Sioux Wood River) is 417 miles. Buf- 
faloes still feed on its western banks. Its tributaries 
are numerous and copious, abounding with the 
choicest kinds of game, and skirted with a various 
and beautiful foliage. It cannot be many years 
before this magnificent valley shall pour its products 



VALLEY OF RED KIVER OF THE NORTH. 105 

into our markets, and be the theatre of a busy and 
genial life. 

One of the first things which drew my attention 
to this river was a siciht of several teams travelling; 
towards this vicinity from a north-westerly direction. 
I observed that the complexion .of those in the cara- 
van was a little darker than that of pure white Min- 
nesotians, and that the carts were a novelty. ^' Who 
are those people? and where are they from?" I in- 
quired of a friend. " They are Red River people, 
just arrived — they have come down to trade. ' ' Their 
carts are made to be drawn by one animal, either an 
ox or a horse, and are put together without the use 
of a particle of iron. They are excellently adapted 
to prairie travelling. How strange it seems ! Here 
are people who have been from twenty to thirty days 
on their journey to the nearest civilized community. 
This is their nearest market. Their average rate of 
travelling is about fifteen miles a day, and they gene- 
rally secure game enough on the way for their living. 
I have had highly interesting accounts of the Red 
River settlement since I have been here, both from 
Mr. Ross and Mr. Marion, gentlemen recently from 
there. The settlement is seventy miles north of 
Pembina, and lies on both sides of the river. Its 
population is estimated at 10,000. It owes its origin 
and growth to the enterprise and success of the 
Hudson's Bay Company. Many of the settlers came 
from Scotland, but the most Avere from Canada. 
They speak English and Canadian French. The 



106 MINNESOTA AND L>ACOTAII. 

English style of society is well kept up, whether we 
regard the church with its bishop, the trader with 
his wine cellar, the scholar with his library, the offi- 
cer with his sinecure, or their paper currency. I 
find they have everything but a hotel, for I was 
particular on that point, though not intending just 
yet to go there. Probably the arrivals do not justify 
such an institution, but their cordial hospitality will 
make up for any such lack, from all I hear. They 
have a judge who gets a good house to live in, and 
£1000 sterling a year ; but he has nothing of con- 
sequence to do. He was formerly a leading lawyer 
in Canada. 

The great business of the settlement, of course, 
is the fur traffic. An immense amount of buffalo 
skins is taken in the summer and autumn, while 
in the winter smaller but more valuable furs are 
procured. The Indians also enlist in the hunts ; and 
it is estimated that upwards of $200,000 worth of 
furs are annually taken from our territory and sold 
to the Hudson's Bay Company. It is high time in- 
deed that a military post should be established 
somewhere on the Red River by our government. 
The Hudson's Bay Company is now a powerful mo- 
nopoly. Not so magnificent and potent as the East 
India Company, it is still a powerful combination, 
showering opulence on its members, and reflecting 
a peculiar feature in the strength and grandeur of 
the British empire — a power, which, to use the elo- 
quent language of Daniel Webster, " has dotted 



VALLFA' OF RED RIVFR OF THE NORTH. 107 

over the whole surface of the globe with her posses- 
sions and military posts — whose morning drum-beat, 
following the sun, and keeping company with the 
hours, circles the earth daily with one continuous 
and unbroken strain of martial music." The com- 
pany is growing richer every year, and its jurisdic- 
tion and its lands will soon find an availability never 
dreamed of by its founders, unless, as may possibly 
happen, popular sovereignty steps in to grasp the 
fruits of its long apprenticeship. Some time ago I 
believe the Canadas sought to annex this broad ex- 
panse to their own jurisdiction. There are about 
two hundred members in the Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany. The charter gives them the power to legis- 
late for the settlement. They have many persons 
in their employ in England as well as in British 
America. A clerk, after serving the company ten 
years, with a salary of about $500 per annum, is 
considered qualified for membership, wijth the right 
to vote in the deliberations of the company, and 
one share in the profits. The profits of a share last 
year amounted to $10,000 ! A factor of the com- 
pany, after serving ten years, is entitled to mem- 
bership with the profits of two shares. The aristo- 
cracy of the settlement consists principally of retired 
factors and other members of the company, who 
possess large fortunes, dine on juicy roast beef, with 
old port, ride in their carriages, and enjoy life in a 
very comfortable manner. Two of the company's 
ships sail up into Hudson's Bay every year to bring 



108 MINNESOTA AND DACOTAH. 

merchandise to the settlement and take away furs. ^ 
But the greatest portion of the trade is done with 
Minnesota. Farming is carried on in the neighbor- 
hood of the settlement with cheerful ease and grand 
success. I was as much surprised to hear of the 
nature of their agriculture as of anything else con- 
cerning the settlement. The same kind of crops 
are raised as in Pennsylvania or Maine ; and this 
in a country, be it remembered, five hundred miles 
and upwards north of St. Paul. Stock must be 
easily raised, as it would appear from the fact that 
it is driven down here into the territory and sold at 
a great profit. Since I have been here, a drove of 
fine-looking cattle from that settlement passed to 
be sold in the towns below, and a drove of horses is 
expected this fall. The stock which comes from 
there is more hardy than can be got anywhere else, 
and therefore is preferred by the Minnesotians. 

The following extract from Ex-Governor Ram- 
sey's address, recently delivered before the annual 
fair at Minneapolis, wherein he gives some results 
of his observations of the Red River settlement 
during his trip there in 1851, will be read w^ith 
much interest : — 

'' Re-embarking in our canoes, we continued de- 
scending the river for some fifteen miles further, 
•through the French portion of the settlement, lining 

i"The Hudson's Bay Company allows its servants, while making 
a voyage, eight pounds of meat a day, and I am told the allowance is 
none too much." (Lieutenant Ilowison's Report on Oregon, p. 7.) 



VAIJ.KY or RED KlVEIl Ui< THE NORTH. 109 

mainly the west or left bank of the river, until we 
arrived about the centre of the colony, at the 
mouth of the Assinniboin tributary of Red River, 
where we landed and remained a few days, viewing 
the colony and its improvements. I was at that 
time, and am even now, when I look back upon it, 
lost in wonder at the phenomena which that settle- 
ment exhibits to the world, considering its location 
in an almost polar region of the North. Imagine a 
river flowing sluggishly northward through a flat 
alluvial plain, and the west side of it lined continu- 
ously for over thirty miles with cultivated farms, 
each presenting those appearances of thrift around 
them w^hich I mentioned as surrounding the first 
farms seen by us ; but each farm with a narrow 
frontage on the river of only twenty-four rods in 
w^idth, but extending back for one or two miles, and 
each of these narrow farms havinof their dwellino;s and 
the farm out-buildings spread only along the river 
front, with lawns sloping to the water's edge, and 
shrubbery and vines liberally trained around them, 
and trees intermingled — the whole presenting the 
appearance of a long suburban village — such as you 
might see near our eastern sea-board, or such as 
you find exhibited in pictures of English country 
villages, with the resemblance rendered more strik- 
ing by the spires of several large churches peeping 
above the foliage of the trees in the distance, white- 
w^ashed school-houses glistening here and there 
amidst sunlight and green; gentlemen's houses of. 
10 



110 MINNESOTA AND DACOTAII. 

pretentious dimensions and grassy lawns and ela- 
borate fencing, the seats of retired oiBcers of the 
Hudson's Bay Company occasionally interspersed ; 
here an English bishop's parsonage, with a board- 
ing or high school near by ; and over there a Ca- 
tholic bishop's massive cathedral, with a convent 
of Sisters of Charity attached ; whilst the two large 
stone forts, at which reside the officers of the Hud- 
son's Bay Company, or of the colony once called 
Upper Fort Garry, and situated at the mouth of the 
Assinniboin, and the other termed the Lower Fort 
Garry, which is twenty miles farther down the river, 
helped to give additional picturesqueness to the 
scene. I had almost forgotten to mention what is, 
after all, the most prominent and peculiar feature 
of that singular landscape, singular from its loca- 
tion — and that is the numerous wind-mills, nearly 
twenty in all, which on every point of land made 
by the turns and bends in the river, stretched out 
their huge sails athwart the horizon, and seemingly 
looked defiance at us as invading strangers, that 
were from a land where steam or w^ater mills mono- 
polize their avocation of flour making. One morn- 
ing as we passed down the principal high road, on 
our way to Lower Fort Garry, the wind, after a 
protracted calm, began to blow a little ; when pres- 
to ! each mill veered around its sails to catch the 
propitious breeze, and as the sails began to revolve, 
it was curious to observe the numerous carts that 
shot out from nearly every farm-house, and hurried 



VALLEY OF RED RIVER OF THE NORTH. Ill 

along the road to these mills, to get ground their 
grists of spring wheat, with which they were re- 
spectively loaded. 

" Another incident during the same trip that 
struck us oddly, was seeing two ladies driving by 
themselves a fine horse hitched to a buggy of mo- 
dern fashion, just as much at home apparently as 
if they were driving through the streets of St. Paul, 
or St. Anthony, or Minneapolis, instead of upon 
that remote highway towards the North Pole ; but 
this was not a whit more novel than to hear the 
pianoforte, and played, too, with both taste and 
skill. While another ' lion' of those parts that met 
our view was a topsail schooner lying in the river 
at the lower fort, which made occasional trips into 
Great Lake Winnepeg of the North, a hundred 
miles below. 

" I took occasion during my visit to inquire what 
success the farmers met with in securing good crops, 
and the profits of farmers generally. As to wheat, 
I learned that the ^aeld of the spring variety was 
quite equal in quantity and quality to the crop of 
that grain on any more southern farms ; that in 
raising barley they could almost surpass the w^orld ; 
and the cereals generally, and all the esculent roots, 
were easily raised. Indian corn was not planted 
as a field crop, though it was grown in their gardens. 
In a word, the capacity of their land to produce al- 
most everything plentifully and well, was establish- 
ed ; but for all this, farming did not afford much 



112 MINNESOTA AND DACOTAII. 

profit for "want of a siifEcient market ; beyond a 
small demand by the Hudson's Bay Company, there 
was no outlet for their superabundance ; and to use 
an Austrian phase in regard to Hungarians, tho 
Selkirkers are metaphysically ' smothering in their 
own fat.' To remedy this state of things they 
were beginning, when I was there, to turn their at- 
tention towards raising cattle and horses, for which 
their country is well calculated ; and the first fruits 
of this new decision given to their farming ener- 
gies, we have already experienced in the droves of 
both which have recently been driven from thence 
and sold in this vicinity." 

I think the facts which I have herein hastily set 
down will dispel any apprehension as to the successful 
cultivation of the soil in the northern part of the 
territory. It has a health-giving climate which be- 
fore long, I predict, will nourish as patriotic a race of 
men as gave immortality to the noble plains of Helve- 
tia. There is one thing I would mention which seems 
to auspicate the speedy development of the valley of 
the North Red River. Next year Minnesota will pro- 
bably be admitted as a state ; and a new territory 
organized out of the broad region embracing the 
valley aforesaid and the head waters of the Mis- 
sissippi. Or else it will be divided by a line north 
and south, including the western valley of that river, 
and extending as far to the west as the Missouri 
River. I understand it will be called Dacotah, 
though I at first thought it would be called Pern- 



VALLEY OF RED RIVER OF THE NORTH. 113 

bina. There is always a rush into new territories, 
and the proposed new territory of Dacotah will 
present sufficient inducements for a large immigra- 
tion. When the valley of the North Red River 
shall be settled, and splendid harvest fields adorn 
its banks ; when great factories take the place of 
wind-mills, and when railroads shall take the place 
of Red River carts, then we will have new cause 
to exclaim, 

"Westward the ccursc (f empire takes its way!" 



LETTER XL 

THE TRUE PIONEER. 

Energy of the pioneer — Frontier life — Spirit of emigration — Advan- 
tages to tho farmer in moving West — Advice in regard to making 
preemption claims — Abstract of tho preemption law — Hints to 
the settler — Character and services of the pioneer. 

Crow Wing, October, 1856. 

I DESIRE in this letter to say something about the 
pioneer, and life on the frontier. And by pioneer 
I mean the true pioneer wlio comes into the West to 
labor and to share the vicissitudes of new settle- 
ments ; not the adventurer, who would repine at toil, 
and gather where he has not sown. 

As I have looked abroad upon the vast domain 
of the West beyond the dim Missouri, or in the 
immediate valley of the Mississippi, I have wonder- 
ed at the contrast presented between the compara- 
tively small number who penetrate to the frontier, 
and that great throng of men who toil hard for a 
temporary livelihood in the populous towns and 
cities of the Union. And I have thought if this 
latter class were at all mindful of the opportunities 
for gain and independence which the new territories 
afforded, they would soon abandon — in a great mea- 
sure at least — their crowded alleys in the city, and 
aspire to be cultivators and owners of the soil. Why 

(114) 



THE TRUE riONEEll. 115 

there has not been a greater emigration from cities 
I cannot imagine, unless it is owing to a misappre- 
hension of Western life. Either it is this, or the 
pioneer is possessed of a very superior degree of 
energy. 

It has been said that the frontier man always 
keeps on the frontier ; that he continues to emigrate 
as fast as the country around him becomes settled. 
There is a class that do so. Not, however, for the 
cause which has been sometimes humorously assign- 
ed — that civilization was inconvenient to them — 
but because good opportunities arise to dispose of 
the farms they have already improved ; and because 
a further emigration secures them cheaper lands. 
The story of the pioneer wdio was disturbed by so- 
ciety, when his nearest neighbor lived fifteen miles 
off, even if it be true, fails to give the correct rea- 
son for the migratory life of this class of men. 

It almost ahvays happens that wdierever we go 
somebody else has preceded us. Accident or enter- 
prise has led some one to surpass us. Many of the 
most useful pioneers of this country have been at- 
tracted hither by the accounts given of its advan- 
tages by some one of their friends who had pre- 
viously located himself here. Ask a man why he 
comes, and he says a neighbor of his, or a son, or 
a brother, has been in the territory for so many 
months, and he likes it so w^ell I concluded to come 
also. A very respectable gentleman from Maine, 
a shipowner and a man of wealth, who came up on 



116 MINNESOTA AND DACOTAII. 

the boat with me to St. Paul, said his son-in-law 
was in the territory, and he had another son at home 
who was bound to come, and if his wife was willing 
he believed the whole family would come. Indeed 
the excellent state of society in the territory is to 
be attributed very much to the fact that parents have 
followed after their children. 

It is pretty obvious too why men will leave poor 
farms in New England, and good farms in Ohio, to 
try their fortunes here. The farmer in New Eng- 
land, it may be in New Hampshire, hears that the 
soil of Minnesota is rich and free from rocks, that 
there are other favorable resources, and a salubrious 
climate such as he has been accustomed to. He 
concludes that it is best to sell out the place he has, 
and try ploughing where there are no rocks to ob- 
struct him. The farmer of Ohio does not expect 
to find better soil than he leaves ; but his induce- 
ments are that he can sell his land at forty or fifty 
dollars an acre, and preempt as good in Minnesota 
for a dollar and a quarter an acre. This operation 
leaves him a surplus fund, and he becomes a more 
opulent man, with better means to adorn his farm 
and to educate his children. 

Those who contemplate coming West to engage in 
agricultural employment should leave their families, 
if families they have, behind till they have selected 
a location and erected some kind of a habitation ; 
provided, however, they have no particular friend 
whose hospitality they can avail themselves of till 



THE TRUE PIONEER. 117 

their preliminary arrangements are effected. It will 
require three months, I judge, for a man to select a 
good claim (a quarter section, being 160 acres), and 
fence and plough a part of it and to erect thereon 
a cabin. There is never a want of land to preempt 
in a new country. The settler can always get an 
original claim, or buy out the claim of another very 
cheap, near some other settlers. The liberal policy 
of our government in regard to the disposal of public 
lands is peculiarly beneficial to the settler. The 
latter has the first chance. He can go on to a 
quarter section which may be worth fifteen dollars 
an acre, and preempt it before it is surveyed, and 
finally obtain it for $1.25 an acre. Whereas the 
speculator must w^ait till the land is surveyed and 
advertised for sale ; and then he can get only what 
has not been preempted, and at a price which it 
brings at auction, not less than $1.25 an acre. 
Then w^hat land is not sold at public sale is open to 
private entry at $1.25 an acre. It is such land 
that bounty warrants are located on. Thus it is 
seen the pioneer has the first choice. Why, I have 
walked over land up here that would now bring from 
ten to twenty dollars an acre if it was in the market, 
and which any settler can preempt and get for $1.25 
an acre. I am strongly tempted to turn farmer 
myself, and go out and build me a cabin. The 
speculation would be a good one. But to acquire a 
title by preemption I must dwell on the soil, and 
prove that I have erected a dwelling and made other 



L18 MINNESOTA AND DACOTAII. 

improvements. In other words, before a man (or 
any head of a family) can get a patent, he must 
satisfy the land officers that he is a dweller in g-ood 
faith on the soil. It is often the case, indeed, that 
men get a title by preemption who never intend to 
live on their quarter section. But they do it by 
fraud. They have a sort of mental reservation, I 
suppose, when they take the requisite oaths. In 
this way many valuable claims are taken up and 
held along from month to month, or from year to 
3''ear, by mock improvements. A pretender will 
make just improvements enough to hinder the actual 
settler from locating on the claim, or will sell out 
to him at a good profit. A good deal of money is 
made by these fictitious claimants. It is rather 
hard to prevent it, too, inasmuch as it is difficult to 
disprove that a man intends some time to have a 
permanent home, or, in fact, that his claim is not 
his legal residence, though his usual abiding place 
is somewhere else. Nothing could be more delight- 
ful than for a party of young men who desire to 
farm to come out together early in the spring, and 
aid each other in preempting land in the same 
neighborhood. The preemptor has to pay about 
five dollars in the way of fees before he gets through 
the entire process of securing a title. It is a popu- 
lar error (much like the opinion that a man cannot 
swear to what he sees through glass) that improve- 
ments of a certain value, say fifty dollars, are re- 
quired to be made, or that a certain number of acres 



THE TRUE PIONEER. 1 10 

must be cultivated. All that is required, however, 
is evidence that the party has built a house fit to 
live in, and has in good faith proceeded to cultivate 
the soil. The law does not permit a person to pre- 
empt 160 acres but once ; yet this provision is often 
disregarded, possibly from ignorance, I was about to 
say, but that cannot be, since the applicant must 
make oath that he has not before availed himself 
of the right of preemption. 

I will insert at this place an abridgment of the 
preemption act of 4th September, 1841, which I 
made two years ago ; and which was extensively 
published in the new states and territories. I am 
happy to find, also, that it has been thought worth 
copying into one or more works on the West. 

I. Lands subject to p?'ft?'???25^/o??. By sec. 10 of 
said act it is provided that the public lands to which 
the Indian title had been extinguished at the time 
of the settlement, and which had also been surveyed 
prior thereto, shall be subject to preemption, and 
purchase at the rate of one dollar and twenty-five 
cents per acre. And by the act of 22d July, 1854, 
sec. 12, the preemption of unsurveyed lands is re- 
cognised as legal. Lands of the following descrip- 
tion are excepted : such as are included in any re- 
servation, by any treaty, law, or proclamation of the 
President of the United States, or reserved for sa- 
lines or for other purposes ; lands included within the 
limits of any incorporated town, or wdiich have been 
selected as the site for a city or town ; lands actu- 



120 MINNESOTA AND DACOTAII. 

ally settled and occupied for the purposes of trade 
and not agriculture ; and lands on "which are situ- 
ated any known salines or mines. 

II. The amount designated is any number of acres 
not exceeding one hundred and sixty. 

III. ^Yho may j^i^eempt. "Every person being 
the head of a family, or widow, or single man over 
the age of twenty-one years, and being a citizen of 
the United States, or having filed his declaration of 
intention to become a citizen, as required by the 
naturalization laws." But no person shall be en- 
titled to more than one preemptive right, and no 
person who is the proprietor of three hundred and 
twenty acres of land in any state or territory of 
the United States, and no person who shall quit or 
abandon his residence on his own land to reside on 
the public land in the same state or territory, shall 
acquire any right of preemption. 

IV. The method to perfect the right. The pre- 
emptor must make a settlement on the land in per- 
son ; inhabit and improve the same, and erect thereon 
a dwelling. And when the land has been surveyed 
previous to settlement the preemptor shall, within 
thirty days of the date of the settlement, file with the 
register of the proper district a written statement de- 
scribing the land settled upon, and declaring the in- 
tention of such person to claim the same under the 
provisions of the preemption law. And within twelve 
months of the date of the settlement such person 
shall make the requisite proof, affidavit, and payment. 



Til K T II U ]•: PJ ON E KR . 121 

When unsurveyed lands are preempted (act of 1854), 
notice of the specific tracts claimed shall bo filed 
with the surveyor general, within three months after 
the survey has been made in the field. And when 
two or more persons shall have settled on the same 
quarter section, the right of preemption shall be in 
him or her who made the first settlement; and 
questions arising between different settlers shall be 
decided by the register and receiver of the district 
within which the land is situated, subject to an 
appeal to and revision by the Secretary of the In- 
terior of the United States. 

And the settler must make oath before the re- 
ceiver or register that he or she has never had the 
benefit of any right of preemption under the pre- 
emption act : that he or she is not the owner of three 
hundred and tw'enty acres of land in any state or 
territory of the United States, nor hath he or she 
settled upon and improved said land to sell the 
same on speculation, but in good faith to appropri- 
ate it to his or her own exclusive use or benefit : 
and that he or she has not directly or indirectly 
made any agreement or contract in any way or 
manner with any person or persons wdiatsoever, by 
which the title which he or she might acquire from 
the government of the United States should enure 
in whole or in part to the benefit of any person 
except himself or herself; and if any person taking 
such oath shall SAvear falsely in the premises, he or 
she shall be subject to all the pains and penalties 
11 



122 MINNESOTA AND DACOTAII. 

of perjury, and shall forfeit the money Avhich he or 
she may have paid for such land, and all right and 
title to the same ; and any grant or conveyance 
which he or she may have made, except in the 
hands of bona fide purchasers for a valuable con- 
sideration, shall be null and void. 

Proof of the requisite settlement and improve- 
ment shall be made by the preemptor to the satis- 
faction of the register and receiver, in the district 
in which the lands so claimed lie, who shall each be 
entitled to receive fifty cents from each applicant 
for his services rendered as aforesaid ; and all as- 
signments and transfers of the right hereby secured 
prior to the issuing of the patent, shall be null and 
void. (See U. S. Stat, at Large, vol. 5, 453-458.) 

But I was on the point of advising the settler 
what he should bring with him into a new country 
and what leave behind. He should not bring much 
furniture. It is very expensive and troublesome to 
have it transported. Nor will he need much to be- 
gin with, or have room for it. It Avill cost nearly 
as much to transport it seventy miles through the 
territory as it will to bring it from whence he / 
started within the limits of the territory. Let him 
pack up in a small compass the most precious part 
of his inanimate household, and leaA^e it ready 
for an agent to start it after he shall have found 
a domicil. This will save expensive storage. 
Then let his goods be directed to the care of some 
responsible forwarding merchant in a river town 



THE TRUE PIONEER. 123 

nearest to their final destination, that they may be 
taken care of and not be left exposed on the levee 
when they arrive. St. Paul is now a place of so 
much mercantile importance and competition that 
one may buy provisions, furniture, or agricultural 
tools cheaper there than he can himself bring them 
from the East. The professional man, however, 
will do well to bring his books with him. 

Let us assume noAV that the settler has got his 
house up, either a frame house or of logs, with a 
part of his farm fenced ; and that he has filed his 
application for preemption at the land office in the 
district in which he resides. Let us suppose further, 
that he is passing his first autumn here. His house, 
if he is a man of limited means, has but two rooms, 
and they arc both on the basement story. He has 
just shelter enough for his stock, but none for his 
hay, which is stacked near by. The probability is, 
that he lives in the vicinity of some clear stream or 
copious spring, and has not, therefore, needed to 
dig a well. The whole establishment, one would 
think, who was accustomed to the Eastern style of 
living, betrayed downright poverty. 

But let us stop a moment ; this is the home of a 
pioneer. He has been industrious, and everything 
about him exhibits forethought. There is a corn- 
field all fenced in with tamarack poles. It is paved 
over with pumpkins (for pumpkins flourish wonder- 
fully in Minnesota), and contains twenty acres of 
ripe corn, which, allowing thirty-five bushels to an 



12-1: TuiNXESOTA AND DACOTATl. 

acre, is worth at ninety cents per bushel the sum of 
$630. There are three acres of potatoes, of the 
very best quality, containing three hundred bushels, 
which, at fifty cents a bushel, are worth S150. 
Here then, off of two crops, he gets $780, and I 
make a moderate estimate at that. Next year he 
will add to this a crop of oats or wheat. The true 
pioneer is a model farmer. He lays out his work 
two weeks in advance. Every evening finds him 
further ahead. If there is a rainy day, he knows 
what to set himself about. He lays his plans in a 
systematic manner, and carries them into execution 
with energy. He is a true pioneer, and therefore 
he is not an idle man, nor a loafer, nor a weak 
addle-headed tippler. Go into his house, and 
though you do not see elegance, you can yet behold 
intelligence, and neatness, and sweet domestic bliss. 
The life of the pioneer is not exposed to such hard- 
ships and delays as retarded the fortunes of the 
settlers in the older states. They had to clear 
forests ; here the land is ready for the plough. And 
though '' there is society where none intrude," yet 
he is not by any moans beyond the boundaries of 
good neighborhood. In many cases, however, he 
has left his dearest friends far away in his native 
village, where his affections still linger. He has to 
endure painful separations, and to forego those 
many comforts which spring from frequent meetings 
under the parental roof, and frequent converse w^ith 
the most attractive scenes of youth. But to com- 



THE TRUE PIONEER. 125 

pensatc for these things he can feel that the labor 
of the pioneer, aside from its pecuniary advantage 
to himself, is of service to the state, and a helpmate 
to succeeding generations. 

"There are, who, distant from their native soil, 
Still for their own and country's glory toil : 
"While some, fast rooted to their parent spot, 
In life are useless, and in death forgot!" 



n^ 



LETTER XII. 

SPECULATION AND BUSINESS. 

Opportunities to select farms — Otter Tail Lake — Advantages of the 
actual settler over the speculator — Policy of new states as to taxing 
non-residents — Opportunities to make money — Anecdote of Col. 
Perkins — Mercantile business — Price of money — Intemperance — 
Education — The free school. 

Crow Wing, October, 1856. 

It is maintained by the reviewers, I believe, that 
the duller a writer is, the more accurate he should 
be. In the outset of this letter, I desire to testify 
my acquiescence in the justice of that dogma, for 
if, like neighbor Dogberry, " I were as tedious as a 
king," I could not find it in my heart to bestow it 
all without a measure of utility. 

I shall try to answer some questions which I 
imagine might be put by different classes of men 
who are interested in this part of the west. My 
last letter had some hints to the farmer, and I can 
only add, in addition, for his benefit, that the most 
available locations are now a considerable distance 
above St. Paul. The valley of the St. Peter's is pretty 
much taken up ; and so of the valley of the Missis- 
sippi for a distance of fifteen miles on either side to 
a point a hundred miles above St. Paul. One of 

(126) 



SPECULATION AND BUSINESS. 127 

tlic land officers at Minneapolis informed mc that 
there were good preemption claims to be had fifteen 
miles west, that being as far as the country was 
thickly settled. One of the finest regions now un- 
occupied, that I know of, not to except even the 
country on the Crow Wing River, is the land bor- 
dering on Otter Tail Lake. For forty miles all round 
that lake the land is splendid. More than a dozen 
disinterested eye-witnesses have described that 
region to me in the most glowing terms. In beauty, 
in fertility, and in the various collateral resources 
which make a farming country desirable, it is not 
surpassed. It lies south of the picturesque high- 
lands or hauteurs des terres, and about midway 
between the sources of the Crow Wing and North 
Red Rivers. From this town the distance to it is 
sixty miles. The lake itself is ten miles long and 
five miles in Avidth. The water is clear and deep, 
and abounds with white fish that are famous for 
their delicious flavor. The following description, 
which I take from Captain Pope's official narrative 
of his exploration, is a reliable description of this 
delightful spot, now fortunately on the eve of being 
settled — " To the west, north-west, and north-east, 
the whole country is heavily timbered with oak, elm, 
ash, maple, birch, bass, &c., &c. Of these the 
sugar maple is probably the most valuable, and in 
the vicinity of Otter Tail Lake large quantities of 
maple sugar are manufactured by the Indians. The 
wild rice, which exists in these lakes in the most 



128 MINNESOTA AND DACOTAH. 

lavish profusion, constitutes a most necessary article 
of food "with the Indians, and is gathered in large 
quantities in the months of September and October. 
To the east the banks of the lake are fringed Avith 
heavy oak and elm timber to the width of one mile. 
The whole region of country for fifty miles in all 
directions around this lake is among the most beau- 
tiful and fertile in the world. The fine scenery of 
lakes and open groves of oak timber, of winding 
streams connecting them, and beautifully rolling 
country on all sides, renders this portion of Minne- 
sota the garden spot of the north-west. It is impos- 
sible in a report of this character to describe the 
feeling of admiration and astonishment with which 
we first beheld the charming country in the vicinity 
of this lake ; and were I to give expression to my 
own feelings and opinions in reference to it, I fear 
they would be considered the ravings of a visionary 
or an enthusiast."-^ But let fcie say to the specu- 
lator that he need not covet any of these broad 
acres. There is little chance for him. Before that 
land can be bought at public sale or by mere pur- 
chasers at private sale, it will, I feel sure, be entirely 
occupied by actual settlers. And so it ought to be. 
The good of the territory is promoted by that 

1 To illustrate the rapid progj-ess which is going on constantly, I 
■would remark that in less than a month after leaving Crow Wing, I 
received a letter from there informing me that Messrs. Crittenden, 
Cathcart, and others had been to Otter Tail Lake and laid out a town 
which they call Otter Tail City. The standing and means of the men 
engaged in the enterprise, are a sure guaranty of its success. 



SPECULATION AND BLrSLNES.-. Jli'* 

beneficent policy of our public land laws which gives 
the actual settler the first and best chance to acquire 
a title by preemption. 

Speculators have located a great many land "war- 
rants in Minnesota. Some have been located on 
lakes, some on swamps, some on excellent land. Of 
course the owner, who, as a general thing, is a non- 
resident, leaves his land idle for something to " turn 
up" to make it profitable. There it stands doing 
no good, but on the contrary is an encumbrance to 
the settler, who has to travel over and bevond it 
without meeting the face of a neighbor in its vici- 
nity. The policy of new" states is to tax non-resi- 
dent landholders at ^^ high rate. When the terri- 
tory becomes a state, and is obliged to raise a 
revenue, some of these fellows outside, who, to use 
a phrase common up here, have plastered the coun- 
try over with land w^arrants, will have to keep a 
lookout for the tax-gatherer. Now I do not mean 
to discourage moneyed men from investing in Min- 
nesota lands. I do not wish to raise any bugbears, 
but simply to let them know that hoarding up 
large tracts of land without making improvements, 
and leaving it to increase in value by the tuil and 
energy of the pioneer, is a way of doing things 
which is not popular with the actual settler. But 
there is a great deal of money to be made by judi- 
cious investments in land. Buying large tracts of 
land I believe to be the least profitable speculation, 
unless indeed the purchaser knows exactly what he 



130 MINNESOTA AND DACOTAII. 

is buying, and is on hand at the public sale to get 
the benefit of a second choice. I say second choice, 
because the preemptor has had the first choice long 
ago, and it may be before the land was surveyed. 
What I would recommend to speculators is to pur- 
chase in some good toAvn sites. Buy in two or three, 
and if one or two happen to prove failures, the pro- 
fits on the other will enable you to bear the loss. I 
know of a man who invested §6000 at St. Paul six 
years ago. He has sold over $30,000 worth of the 
land, and has as much more left. This is but an 
ordinary instance. The advantage of buying lots 
in a town arises from the rapid rise of the value of 
the land, the ready market, and withal the mode- 
rate prices at which they can be procured during 
the early part of its history. 

To such persons as have a desire to come West, 
and are not inclined to be farmers, and who have 
not capital enough to engage in mercantile business, 
there is sufficient employment. A new country 
always opens avenues of successful business for 
every industrious man and woman ; more kinds even , 
than I could well enumerate. Every branch of 
mechanics needs workmen of all grades ; from the 
boy who planes the rough boards to the head work- 
man. Teaming affords good employment for young 
men the year round. The same may be said of the 
saw-mills. A great deal of building is going on 
constantly; and those who have good trades get 
$2.50 per day. I am speaking, of course, of the 



SPECULATION AND BUSINESS. 131 

territory in general. One of the most profitable 
kinds of miscollaneous business is surveying. This 
art requires the services of large numbers ; not only 
to survey the public lands, but town sites and the 
lands of private individuals. Labor is very high 
everywhere in the West, whether done by men, 
women, or children ; — even the boys, not fourteen 
years old, who clean the knives and forks on the 
steamboats, get $20 a month and are found. But 
the best of it all is, that when a man earns a few dol- 
lars he can easily invest it in a piece of land, and 
double his money in three months, perhaps in one 
month. One of the merchant princes of Boston, 
the late Col. T. H. Perkins, published a notice in a 
Boston paper in 1789, he being then 25, that he 
would soon embark on board the ship Astrea for 
Canton, and that if any one desired to commit an 
"adventure" to him, they might be assured of his 
exertions for their interests. The practice of send- 
ing " adventures" " beyond the seas" is not so com- 
mon as it was once ; and instead thereof men invest 
their funds in western prizes. But let me remark 
in regard to the fact I relate, that it show^s the true 
pioneer spirit. Col. Perkins was a pioneer. His 
energy led him beyond his counting-room, and he 
reaped the reward of his exertions in a great for- 
tune. 

I have now a young man in my mind who came 
to a town ten miles this side of St. Paul, six months 
ago, with $500. He commenced trading, and has 



^'^>'2 MINNESOTA AND DACOTAJI. 

ill read V, by good investments and the profits of his 
business, doubled his money. Everything that one 
can eat or wear brings a high price, or as high as 
it does in any part of the West. The number of 
visitors and emigrants is so hirge that the produc- 
tions of the territory are utterly inadequate to sup- 
ply the market. Therefore large quantities of pro- 
visions have to be brought up the river from the 
lower towns. At Swan River, 100 miles this side 
of St. Paul, pork is worth $35. Knowing that 
pork constitutes a great part of the "victuals" up 
this way, though fjir from being partial to the ar- 
ticle, I tried it when I dined at Swan River to see 
if it was good, and found it to be very excellent. 
Board for laboring men must be about four dollars 
a week. For transient guests at Crow Wing it is 
one dollar a day. 

I have heard it said that money is scarce. It is 
possible. It certainly commands a high premium ; 
but the reason is that there are such splendid op- 
portunities to make fortunes by building and buying 
and selling city lots. A man intends that the rent 
of a house or store shall pay for its construction in 
three years. The profits of adventure justify a 
man in paying high interest. If a man has money 
enough to buy a pair of horses and a wagon, he can 
defy the w^orld. These are illustrations to show 
w'hy one is induced to pay interest. I do not 
think, however, money is "tight." I never saw 



SPECULATION AND BUSINESS. jo-'] 

people so free with their money, or appear to have 
it in so great abundance. 

There is one drawback which this territory has 
in common with the greater part of the West, and 
in fact of the civilized world. It is not only a 
drawback, but a nuisance anywhere ; I mean drink- 
ing or whiskey shops. The greater proportion of 
the settlers are temperate men, I am sure ; but 
in almost every village there are places where 
the meanest kind of intoxicating liquor is sold. 
There are some who sell liquor to the Indians. 
But such business is universally considered as the 
most degraded that a mean man can be guilty of. 
It is filthy to see men staggering about under the 
influence of bad whiskey, or of any kind of whiskey. 
He who sends a young husband to his new cabin 
home intoxicated, to mortify and torment his family ; 
or who sells liquor to the uneducated Indians, that 
they may fight and murder, must have his conscience 
— if he has any at all — cased over with sole leather. 
Mr. Gough is needed in the West. 

Minnesota is not behind in education. Ever since 
Governor Slade, of Ver^nont, brought some bright 
young school mistresses up to St. Paul (in 1849), 
common school education has been diffusing its pre- 
cious influences. The government wisely sets apart 
two sections of land — the 16th and 36th — in every 
township for school purposes. A township is six 
miles square ; and the two sections thus reserved in 
12 



1.J4 MINNESOTA AND DACOTAII. 

each township comprise 1280 acres. Other territo- 
ries have the same provision. This affords a very 
good fund for educational uses, or ratlier it is a 
great aid to the exertions of the people. There are 
some flourishing institutions of learning in the ter- 
ritory. But the greatest institution after all in the 
country — the surest protection of our liberties and 
our laws — is the free school. 



LETTER XIII. 

CROW WING TO ST. CLOUD. 

Pleasant drive in the stage — Scenery — *Ehe past — Fort Ripley Ferry — 
Delay at the Post Office — Belle Prairie — A Catholic priest — Dinner 
at Swan River— Potatoes — Arrival atWatab — St. Cloud. 

St. Cloud, October, 1856. 
Yesterday morning at seven I took my departure, 
on the stage, from Crow Wing. It was a most de- 
lightful morning, the air not damp, but bracing; 
and the welcome rays of the sun shed a mellow lus- 
tre upon a scene of "sylvan beauty." The first 
hour's ride was over a road I had passed in the 
dark on my upward journey, and this was the first 
view I had of the country immediately below Crow 
Wing. No settlements were to be seen, because the 
regulations of military reservations preclude their 
being made except for some purpose connected with 
the public interests. A heavy shower the night be- 
fore had effectually laid the dust, and we bounded 
along on the easy coach in high spirits. The view 
of the prairie stretching "in airy undulations far 
away," and of the eddying current of the Missis- 
sippi, there as everywhere deep and majestic, with 
its banks skirted with autumn-colored foliage, was 
enough to commend the old fashioned system of 

stages to more general use. Call it poetry or what 

(135) 



130 



xMi.NNESUTA A^D DACOTAII. 



you please, yet the man who can contemplate with 
indifference the wonderful profusion of nature, un- 
developed by art — inviting, yet never touched by 
the plough — must lack some one of the senses. In- 
deed, this picture, so characteristic of the new lands 
of the West, seems to call into existence a new 
sense. The vicAV takf s in a broad expanse which 
has never produced a stock of grain ; and which 
has been traversed for ages past by a race whose 
greatest and most frequent calamity was hunger. 
If Ave turn to its past there is no object to call back 
our thoughts. All is oblivion. There are no ruins 
to awaken curious imases of former life — no vestisre 
of humanity — nothing but the present generation 
of nature. And yet there are traces of the past 
generations of nature to be seen. The depressions 
of the soil here and there to be observed, covered 
with a thick meadow grass, are unmistakeable indi- 
cations of lakes which have now "vanished into 
thin air." That these gentle holloAvs were once 
filled with water is the more certain from the ap- 
pearance of the shores of the present lakes, where 
the low water mark seems to have groAvn lower and 
lower every year. But if the past is blank, these 
scenes are suggestive of happy reflections as to the 
future. The long perspective is radiant with busy 
life and cheerful husbandry. New forms spring 
into being. Villages and towns spring up as if by 
masic, along whose streets thrones of men are 
passing. And thus, as " coming events cast their 



CROW WING TO ST. CLOUD. 137 

sliadoAvs before," does the niiiid Avandcr from the 
real to the probable. An hour and a lialf of this 
sort of revery, and we had come to the Fort Ripley 
ferry, over which we Avere to go for the mail. 
That ferry (and I have seen others on the river 
like it) is a marvellous invention. It is a flat-boat 
which is quickly propelled either way across the 
river by means of the resistance which it offers to 
the current. Its machiner}'" is so simple I will try 
to describe it. In the first place a rope is stretched 
across the river from elevated objects on either side. 
Each end of the boat is made fast to this line by 
pullies, which can be taken up or let out at the 
fastenings on the boat. All that is required to start 
the boat is to bring the bow, by means of the pully, 
to an acute angle with the current. The after 
part of the boat presents the principal resistance to 
the current by sliding a thick board into the water 
from the upper side. As the water strikes against 
this, the boat is constantly attempting to describe a 
circle, which it is of course prevented from doing by 
the current, and so keeps on — for it must move 
somewhere — in a direction where the obstruction is 
less. It certainly belongs to the science of hydrau- 
lics, for it is not such a boat as can be propelled by 
steam or wind. I had occasion recently to cross 
the Mississippi on a similar ferry, early in the 
morning, and before the ferryman was up. The 
proprietor of it was with me ; yet neither of us 
knew much of its practical operation. I soon pulled 



138 MINNESOTA AND DACOTAII. 

the head of the boat towards the current, but left 
down the resistance board, or whatever it is called, 
at the bow as well as at the stern. This, of course, 
impeded our progress ; but we got over in a few 
minutes ; and I felt so much interested in this new 
kind of navigation, that I would have been glad to 
try the voyage over again. 

On arriving within the square of the garrison, I 
expected to find the mail read}'' for delivery to the 
driver ; but we had to wait half an hour. The mail 
is only weekly, and there was nothing of any con- 
sequence to change. We repaired to the post office, 
which was in a remote corner of a store-room, 
where the postmaster was busy making up his mail. 
Some of the officers had come in w^ith documents 
which they wished to have mailed. And while we 
stood waiting, corporals and privates, servants of 
other officers brought in letters which Lieutenant 
So-and-so '' was particularly desirous of having 
mailed this morning." The driver w^as magnani- 
mous enough to submit to me whether we should 
wait. We all felt accommodating — the postmaster 
I saw was particularly so — and we concluded to wait 
till everything was in, and perhaps w^e would have 
waited for some one to Avrite a letter. I could not 
but think it would be a week before another mail 
day ; and still I could not but think these unneces- 
sary morning hindrances were throwing a part of 
our journey into the night hours. Returning again 
to the eastern bank of the river by our fine ferry. 



CROW WING TO ST. CLOUD. 139 

we soon passed tlic spacious residence of Mr. Olm- 
sted, a prominent citizen of the territory. "VVe 
made a formal halt at his door to see if there were 
any passengers. Mr. Olmsted has a large farm 
under good cultivation, and several intelligent young 
men in his service. In that neighborhood are some 
other as handsome farms as I ever saw ; but I think 
they are on the reservation, and are cultivated under 
the patronage of the war department. The winter 
grain was just up, and its fresh verdure afforded an 
agreeable contrast with the many emblems of decay- 
ing nature. It was in the middle of the forenoon 
that we reached Belle Prairie, along which are many 
good farm houses occupied by half-breeds. There 
is a church and a school-house. In the cemetery 
is a large cross painted black and white, and from 
its imposing appearance it cannot fail to make a so- 
lemn impression on minds which revere any tangible 
object that is considered sacred. A very comfort- 
able-looking house was pointed out to me as the 
residence of a Catholic priest, who has lived for 
many years in that section, spreading among the 
ignorant a knowledge of Christianity, and minister- 
ing to their wants in the hour of death. And 
though I am no Catholic, I could not but regard the 
superiority of that kind of preaching — for visiting 
the sick, consoling the afflicted, and rebuking sin 
by daily admonitions, is the true preaching of the 
Gospel — over the pompous declamation which now 
too often usurps the pulpit. 



140 MINNESOTA AND DACOTAH. 

The dinner was smoking hot on the table when 
we drove up to the hotel at Swan Kiver ; and so 
charming a drive in the pure air had given me a 
keen appetite. The dinner (and I speak of these 
matters because they are quite important to travel- 
lers) was in all respects worthy of the appetite. The 
great staple article of Minnesota soil appears to be 
potatoes, for they were never known to be better 
anywhere else — Eastport not excepted — and at our 
table d'hote they were a grand collateral to the beef 
and pork. The dessert consisted of nice home 
made apple pies served with generosity, and we had 
tea or milk or water, as requested, for a beverage. 
After partaking of a dinner of this kind, the rest 
of the day's journey w^as looked forward to with no 
unpleasant emotions. The stage happened to be 
lightly loaded, and we rolled along with steady pace, 
and amidst jovial talk, till we reached the thriving, but 
to me not attractive, town of Watab. Three houses 
had been put up within the short time since I had 
stopped there. AVe got into Mr. Oilman's tavern 
at sundown. I was rejoiced to find a horse and 
carriage waiting for me, which had been kindly sent 
by a friend to bring me to St. Cloud. It is seven 
miles from Watab to this town. It was a charming 
moonlight evening, and I immediately started on 
with the faithful youth who had charge of the car- 
riage, to enjoy my supper and lodging under the 
roof of my hospitable friend at St. Cloud. 



LETTER XIV. 

ST. CLOUD.— THE PACIFIC TRAIL. 

Agreeable visit at St. Cloud — Description of the place — Causes of the 
rapid growth of towns — Gen. Lowry — The back country — Gov. 
Stevens's report — Mr. Lambert's views — Interesting account of 
Mr. A. W. Tinkham's expl«ration. 

St. Cloud, October, 185G. 
If I follow the injunction of that most impartial 
and worthy critic, Lord Jeffrey, which is, that tour- 
ists should describe those things which make the 
pleasantest impression on their own minds, I should 
begin with an account of the delightful entertain- 
ment which genuine hospitality and courtesy have 
here favored me with. I passed Blannerhasset's 
Island once, and from a view of the scenery, sought 
something of that inspiration which, from reading 
Wirt's glowing description of it, I thought would be 
excited ; but the reality was far below my anticipa- 
tion. If applied to the banks of the Mississippi 
River, however, at this place, where the Sauk 
Rapids terminate, that charming description Avould 
be no more than an adequate picture. The resi- 
dence of my friend is a little above the limits of St. 
Cloud, midway on the gradual rise from the river to 

the prairie. It is a neat white two-story cottage, 

(141) 



142 MINNESOTA AND DACOTAII. 

with a piazza in front. The yard extends to the 
water's edge, and in it is a grove of handsome shade 
trees. Now that the leaves have fallen, we can sit 
on the piazza and have a full view of the river 
through the branches of the trees. The river is 
here very clear and swift, with a hard bottom ; and 
if it were unadorned with its cheerful foliage- 
covered banks, the view of it would still add a 
charm to a residence. There is a mild tranquillit}^, 
blended with the romance of the scene, admirably 
calculated to raise in the mind emotions the most 
agreeable and serene. For nature is a great in- 
structor and purifier. As Talfourd says in that 
charming little volume of Vacation Kambles, " to 
commune with nature and grov>^ familiar with all her 
aspects, surely softens the manners as much, at the 
least, as the study of the liberal arts." 

St. Cloud is favorably located on the west bank of 
the river, seventy-five miles above St. Paul. It is 
just enough elevated to have good drainage facilities, 
should it become densely populous. For many years 
it was the seat of a trading post among the Winne- 
bairoes. But the date of its start as a town is not 
more than six months ago ; since when it has been 
advancing with unsurpassed thrift, on a scale of 
affluence and durability. Its main street is surely 
a street in other respects than in tlie name ; for it 
has on either side several neatly built three-story 
blocks of stores, around which the gathering of 
teams and of people denotes such an activity of 



ST. CLOUD. — THE PACIFIC TRAIL. 148 

business as to dispel any idea that the place is got 
up under false pretences. The St. Cloud advertise- 
ments in the St. Paul daily papers contain the cards 
of about forty different firms or individuals, "which 
is a sort of index to the business of the place. A 
printing press is already in the town, and a paper 
will in a few days be issued. There are now two 
hotels ; one of wdiich (the Stearns House), it is said, 
cost $9000. A flourishing saw-mill was destroyed by 
fire, and in a few wrecks another one was built in its 
place. An Episcopal church is being erected. The 
steamer " H. M. Rice" runs between here and St. 
Anthony. It is sometimes said that this is the head 
of the Upper Mississippi navigation, but such is not 
the case. The Sauk Rapids which terminate here 
are an obstruction to continuous navigation between 
St. Anthony and Crow Wing, but after you get to 
the latter place (where the river is twenty feet deep) 
there is good navigation for two hundred miles. 
There are several roads laid out to intersect at St. 
Cloud, for the construction of which, I believe, the 
governmciil has made some appropriation. Town 
lots are sold on reasonable terms to those who in- 
tend to make improvements on them, which is the 
true policy for any towm, but the general market 
price ranges from §100 to §1000 a lot. The town 
is not in the hands of capitalists, though moneyed 
men are interested in it. General Lowry is a large 
proprietor. He lives at Arcadia, just above the town 
limits, and has a farm consisting of three hundred 



J-U MINNESOTA AND DACOTAJI. 

acres of the most splendid land, wbicli is well stocked 
■with cattle and durably fenced. A better barn, or 
a neater farm-yard than he has, cannot be found 
between Boston and Worcester. And while speak- 
ing of barns I would observe that the old New 
E norland custom of liavino; frood barns is better 
observed in Minnesota than anywhere else in the 
West. General Lowry has been engaged in mer- 
cantile business. He was formerly a member of 
the territorial council, and is a very useful and valu- 
able citizen of the territory. 

It would not be more surprising to have Eastern 
people doubt some of the statements concerning the 
growth of AV^estern towns, than it was for the king 
of Siam to doubt that there was any part of the 
world where water changed from liquid to a hard 
substance. His majesty knew nothing about ice. 
Now, there are a good many handsome villages in 
the East which hardly support one store. Not that 
people in such a village do not consume as much or 
live in finer style ; but the reason is that they are 
old settlers who produce very much that they live 
on, and who, by great travelling facilities, are able 
to scatter their trading; custom into some commer- 
cial metropolis. Suppose, however, one of your 
large villages to be so newly settled that the people 
have had no chance to raise anything from their 
gardens or their fields, and are obliged to buy all 
they are to eat and all that is to furnish their dwell- 
ings, or equip their shops, or stock their farms ; 



ST. CLOUD. — Till'] PACIFIC TUAIL. 145 

then you have a state of things which will support 
several stores, and a whole catalo2;ue of trades. It 
is a state of affairs which corresponds with every 
new settlement in the West ; or, indeed, which faintly 
compares with the demand for everything merchant- 
able, peculiar in such places. Then again, besides 
the actual residents in a new place, who have money 
enough in their pockets, but nothing in their cellars, 
there is generally a large population in the back 
country of farmers and no stores. Such people 
come to a place like this to trade, for fifteen or 
twenty miles back, perhaps ; and it being a county 
seat they have other objects to bring them. At the 
same time there is an almost constant flow of set- 
tlers through the place into the unoccupied country 
to find preemption claims, who, of course, wish to 
take supplies with them. The settler takes a day, 
perhaps, for his visit in town to trade. Time is 
precious with him, and he cannot come often. So 
he buys^ perhaps, fifty or a hundred dollars worth 
of goods. These are circumstances w^hich account 
for activity of business in these river towns, and 
which, though they are strikingly apparent here, 
are not peculiar to this town. At first, I confess, 
it was a mystery to me what could produce such 
startling and profitable trade in these new towns. 

It was in the immediate vicinity of St. Cloud 
that Gov. Stevens left the Mississippi on his explo- 
ration, in 1853, of a railroad route to the Pacific. 
Several crossings of the river had been previously 
13 



146 MINNESOTA AND DACOTA If. 

examined, and it was found that one of the favor- 
able points for a railroad bridge over it was here. 
I might here say that the country directly west lies 
in the valley of Sauk River, and from my own ob- 
servation I know it to be a good farming country ; 
and I believe the land is taken up by settlers as far 
back as twelve miles. It is a little upwards of a 
hundred miles in a westerly direction from St. Cloud 
to where the expedition first touched the Bois des 
Sioux (or Sioux Wood River). Gov. Stevens says 
in his report — " The plateau of the Bois des Sioux 
will be a great centre of population and communi- 
cation. It connects with the valley of the Red 
River of the North, navigable four hundred miles 
for steamers of three or four feet draught, with 
forty-five thousand square miles of arable and tim- 
ber land ; and with the valley of the Minnesota, also 
navigable at all seasons when not obstructed by ice, 
one hundred miles for steamers, and occasionally a 
hundred miles further. The head of navigation of 
the Red River of the North is within one hundred 
and ten miles of the navigable portion of the Mis- 
sissipjDi, and is distant only forty miles from the 
Minnesota. Eastward from these valleys to the 
great lakes, the country on both sides of the Missis- 
sippi is rich, and much of it heavily timbered." 

I will also add another remark which he makes, 
inasmuch as the character of the country in this 
latitude, as far as the Pacific shore, must have great 
influence on this locality ; and it is this : ^' Proba- 



ST. CLOUD. — THE PACIFIC TRAIL. 147 

bly four thousand square miles of tillable land is to 
be found immediately on the eastern slopes of (the 
Rocky Mountains) ; and at the bottoms of the difter- 
ent streams, retaining their fertility for some distance 
after leaving the mountains, will considerably in- 
crease this amount." Mr. John Lambert, the topo- 
grapher of the exploration, divides the country be- 
tween the Mississippi and Columbia rivers, into 
three grand divisions. The first includes the vast 
prairies between the Mississippi and the base of the 
Rocky Mountains. The second is the mountain 
division, embracing about five degrees of longitude. 
The third division comprises the immense plains of 
the Columbia. 

Of the first division — from here to the foot of the 
Rocky Mountains — let me quote what Mr. Lambert 
in his official report calls a " passing glance." 
" Undulating and level prairies, skirted with woods 
of various growth, and clothed everywhere with a 
rich verdure ; frequent and rapid streams, with in- 
numerable small but limpid lakes, frequented by 
multitudes of waterfowl, most conspicuous among 
which appears the stately swan ; these, in ever- 
recurring succession, make up the panorama of this 
extensive district, which may be said to be every- 
where fertile, beautiful, and inviting. The most 
remarkable features of this region are the intervals 
of level prairie, especially that near the bend of 
Red River, where the horizon is as unbroken as that 
of a calm sea. Nor are other points of resemblance 



143 MINNESOTA AND DACOTAII. 

"wanting — tlio long grass, •whicli in such places is 
unusually rank, bending gracefully to the passing 
breeze as it sweeps along the plain, gives the idea 
of waves (as indeed they are) ; and the solitary 
horseman on the horizon is so indistinctly seen as 
to complete the picture by the suggestion of a sail, 
raising the first feeling of novelty to a character of 
w^onder and deli2;ht. The followino; outlines of the 

CD O 

rolling prairies are broken only by the small lakes 
and patches of timber which relieve them of mono- 
tony and enhance their beauty ; and though marshes 
and sloughs occur, they are of too small extent and 
too infrequent to affect the generally attractive cha- 
racter of the country. The elevation of the rolling 
prairies is generally so uniform, that even the sum- 
mits between streams flowing in opposite directions 
exhibit no peculiar features to distinguish them from 
the ordinary character of the valley slopes." 

I think I cannot do a better service to the emi- 
grant or settler than to quote a part of the report 
made by Mr. A. W. Tinkham, descriptive of his 
route from St. Paul to Fort Union. His explora- 
tion, under Gov. Stevens, was made in the summer 
of 1853 ; and he has evidently given an impartial 
account of the country. I begin with it where he 
crosses the Mississippi in the vicinity of St. Cloud. 
The part quoted embraces the route for a distance 
of two hundred and ninety-five miles ; the first 
seventy miles of which was due west — the rest of 
the route being a little north of west. 



ST. CLOUD. — TIUS PACIFIC TRAIL. 149 

" June 9. Ferried across the Mississippi River, 
here some six hundred to eight hundred feet wide — 
boating the camp equipage, provisions, &c., and 
swimming the animals ; through rich and fertile 
prairies, variegated with the wooded banks of Sauk 
River, a short distance on the left, with the wooded 
hills on either side, the clustered growth of elm, 
poplar, and oak, which the road occasionally touches ; 
following the 'Red River trail,' we camp at Cold 
Spring Brook, Avitli clear, cool water, good grass, 
and wood. 

" Ju7ie 10. Cold Spring Brook is a small brook 
about ten feet across, flowing through a miry slough, 
which is very soft and deep, and previous to the 
passage of the wagons, had, for about two hundred 
feet distance, been bridged in advance by a causeway 
of round or split logs of the poplar growth near by ; 
between this and the crossing of Sauk River are 
two other bad sloughs, over one of which are laid 
logs of poplar, and over the other the wagons were 
hauled by hand, after first removing the loads. 
Sauk River is crossed obliquely w^ith a length of 
ford some three hundred feet — depth of water four 
and a-half to five feet ; goods must be boated or 
rafted over, the river woods affording the means of 
building a raft ; camped immediately after crossing ; 
wood, water, and grass good and abundant. 

'''June 11. Over rolling 2'>i'airies, w^ithout wood 
on the trail, although generally in sight on the right 
or left, with occasional small ponds and several bad 



150 MINNESOTA A^D BACOTAII. 

sloughs, across which the wagons were hauled over 
by hand to Lake Henry — a handsome, wooded 
lake ; good wood and grass ; water from small 
pond ; not very good. 

^'' June 13. Passing over rolling prairies to a 
branch of Crow River, the channel of which is only 
some twenty feet wide and four or five feet deep ; 
but the water makes back into the grass one hun- 
dred feet or more from the channel as early in the 
season as when crossed by the train. Goods boated 
over ; wagons by hand and with ropes ; no wood on 
the stream ; several small lakes, not wooded, are on 
either side of the trail, with many ducks, geese, and 
plovers on them : encamp at Lightning Lake, a 
small and pretty lake, sufficiently well wooded on 
the borders for camping jDurposes ; good water, 
wood, and grass, and abounding with fish. 

"t/wne 18. Over rolling prairie with small pools 
and marshes, to a swift running stream about twenty 
feet wide, three feet deep, a branch of Chippewa 
River ; heavily rolling ground with stony knolls and 
granite boulders, to White Bear Lake, a large hand- 
some lake, with mingled open and woodland. 

" Broken rolling ground to camp, a mile ofi" the 
Red River trail, and near a small w^ooded lake. 
Two small brooks have to be crossed in the i^iter- 
val, and being somewhat deep and with abrupt 
sides, are troublesome crossings. 

" June 20. Rolling prairie country, with small 
marshes and ponds to a tributary of South Branch. 



ST. CLOUD. — THE PACIFIC TRAIL. 151 

Swift running stream, gravcllj bottom, fifteen feet 
wide, three to four feet deep ; with care in selection 
good crossing was obtained for the wagons ; a 
wooded lake is a short distance to the right of trail. 

" Small rivulet, whose banks are marshy and 
soft. 

" Prairies, with small marshes and ponds to a 
swift running brook, six feet wide. 

" Prairie to Pike Lake and camp of St. Grover ; 
a handsome lake of about a mile in diameter, said 
to abound in pike ; well wooded on its south bor- 
der ; grass, water, and wood, for camping, abundant 
and good. 

/'Rolling prairie with knolls; several ponds and 
marshes, with an intervening brook about six feet 
wide, and rather difficult of passage, from the ab- 
ruptness of its banks, to a small brook, the outlet 
of a small and partially wooded lake or pond. 

" Rolling prairie, with grassy, swelling knolls, 
small ponds and marshes, to Chippeway River ; 
camp of odometer wagon on edge of river ; water 
and grass good ; no wood. 

June 24. Crossed Chippeway River, one hun- 
dred and twenty-four feet wide, three to six feet 
deep ; goods boated over, and the animals swimming ; 
wagon hauled through the water by a rope attached 
to the tongue, and with the aid of the mules ; camped 
on Elk Lake, a small and pretty lake, well wooded, 
and with luxuriant grass ; good water. 

June 25. Trail passes over prairies with a rich 



152 MINNESOTA AND DACOTAH 

heavy grass (this is a hundred miles west of the 
Mississippi River), about eighteen inches high, 
winding between wooded lakes to a heavy ravine, 
with a small and slusrsrish rivulet in its bottom ; 
sides steep, and laborious for the wagon train. 

" Prairie sloping towards the western branch of the 
Chippeway River ; a stream when crossed, about one 
hundred and forty feet wide, three or four feet deep, 
with a marked current and firm bottom; no wood. 

" Camp on a small lake, fairly wooded, with 
luxuriant grass, and good water. 

" June 27. Undulating prairie, rich soil, covered 
with a heavy growth of grass, with small ponds and 
marshes ; woods continue in sight a short distance 
on the left of Elbow Lake, a well wooded lake, of 
form indicated by its name. 

" Rolling prairie, with two bad sloughs, to Rabbit 
River, Avhich is crossed with the wagon with but little 
difficulty, where it issues from a small lake. It is a 
small stream, but spreads out from one hundred to 
three hundred feet, with marshy borders ; camp on 
the small lake, with good grass, wood, and water. 

" June 28. Rolling ground, with small ponds 
and marshes, to a small brook twelve feet wide ; the 
Bois des Sioux prairie, a smooth, flat prairie, with- 
out knoll or undulation — an immense plain, appa- 
rently level, covered with a tall, coarse, dark-colored 
grass, and unrelieved w^ith the sight of a tree or 
shrub ; firm bottom, but undoubtedly wet in spring; 
small brook, when the train made a noon halt. 



ST. CLOUD. THE PACIFIC TRAIL. 15o 

" Same smooth prairie as above to Bois des Sioux 
River, sometimes soft and miry; camp on river Lank ; 
v/ood and grass good — river water fair ; many cat- 
fish caught in the river. 

" June 29. Cross Bois des Sioux River ; seventy 
feet wide, four to seven feet deep ; muddy bottom ; 
steep and miry banks ; goods boated over ; wagons 
hauled through, light, with ropes ; bad crossing, but 
passable ; smooth flat prairie, as on the east side of 
Bois des Sioux, occasionally interrupted with open 
sloughs to Wild Rice River, and camp with wood, 
water, and abundant grass. 

"June 30. Wild Rice River, about forty feet 
wide and five and a half feet deep, with muddy and 
miry bottom and sides, flowing in a canal-like chan- 
nel, some twenty feet below prairie level ; river skirt- 
ed with elm — bridged from the steep banks, being 
too miry to sustain the animals, detaining the train 
but little more than half-a-day ; small brook with- 
out wood, flowing in a broad channel cut out through 
the prairie ; crossing miry, but made passable for 
the wagon by strewing the bottom with mown grass. 

" Firm prairie to camp on edge of above small 
stream ; good grass and water ; no wood ; elk killed 
by hunter. 

" July 1. Smooth prairie extending to Shayenne 
River ; sand knolls, ponds, and marshes frequent 
as the river is approached. The marshes were not 
miry — firmer bottom ; good wagon road ; night en- 
campment on bank of river ; sufficient grass for 



154 MINNESOTA AND DACOTAII. 

train ; wood abundant ; river water good ; many 
catfish caught in river. 

" July 2. Shayenne River, sixty feet wide, four- 
teen feet deep ; river had been previously bridged 
by Red River train, from the popLars and other trees 
growing on the river, and this bridge we made use 
of in crossing our wagons ; camp on the west bank 
of the river ; water, wood, and grass good. 

" July 4. Prairie undulation, interrupted with 
marshes, small ponds and occasional small rivulets, 
to Maple River, about twenty-five feet wide, three 
and a half feet deep, firm bottom, and easily passed 
by the wagons ; river tolerably well wooded, and 
the camp on its edge is furnished with water, wood, 
and good grass. The rich black soil of the valley 
of this stream is noticeable. 

" July 5. To a small stream thirty feet wide, two 
feet deep, clayey bottom, easily crossed by the 
wagons ; prairie high, firm, and almost level for some 
thirteen miles, becoming more rolling and w^th small 
ponds in the last seven miles of the march ; on the edge 
of some of the ponds are salt incrustations ; camp 
on the river ; water good ; grass good ; no wood , 
and the bois de vache is used for fuel. 

^' July 6. Country wet and marshy ; not a tree 
in sight ; prairie with low ridges and knolls, and 
great number of ponds and marshes; night's camp 
by a small pond ; no wood, but plenty of bois do 
vache ; grass good. 

" July 7. Approaching the Shayenne ; country as 



ST. CLOUD. — Till'] IWCIb'IC TRAIL. 1 T),") 

yesterday for some half dozen miles ; bordering on the 
river the ground is broken with deep coul^ies and rav- 
ines, and to keep away from them the train kept at 
some distance from the river, encamping by a small 
marshy pond ; no wood ; plenty of bois de vache ; grass 
good ; water tolerable ; first buffalo killed to-day. 

''''July 8. Prairie swelling with ridges ; descend 
to the Shayenne, which flows some one hundred and 
fifty to two hundred feet below the prairie by a steep 
hill ; camp in the bottom of the river ; wood and water 
good; grass rather poor; the bottom of the Shay- 
enne, some half a mile wide, is often soft and miry, 
but w^hen crossed by the train firm and dry. 

" July 9. Cross the Shayenne, fifty feet wide, 
three and a half feet deep ; immediate banks some 
ten feet high, and requiring some digging to give 
passage to the wagons. 

" Prairie with swellino; ridges and occasional 
marshes to camp, to a slough affording water and 
grass ; no wood ; bufi'alo very abundant. 

" July 10. Prairie swelling into ridges and hills, 
with a frequency of marshes, ponds, and sloughs; 
camp at a pretty lake, near Lake Jessie ; fairly 
wooded, with water slightly saline ; grass scanty, 
having been consumed by the buffalo. Prairies 
covered with buffalo." 

I take this valuable sketch of the natural features 
of the country from volume 1 of Explorations and 
Surveys for the Pacific Railroad (page 353-856) ; for 
which I am indebted to the learned Secretary of War. 



LETTER XV. 

ST. CLOUD TO ST. PAUL. 

Importance of starting early — Judge Story's theory of early rising — 
Rustic scenery — Horses and mules — Surveyors — Humboldt — Baked 
fish — Getting off the track — Burning of hay stacks — Supper at St. 
Anthony — Arrival at the Fuller House. 

St. Paul, October, 1856. 
I WAS up by the gray dawn of the morning of 
yesterday, and after an early but excellent break- 
fast, crossed the river from St. Cloud, in order to 
meet the stage at Sauk Rapids. As we came up on 
the main road, the sight of a freshly made rut, of 
stage-wheel size, caused rather a disquieting appre- 
hension that the stage had passed. But my nerves 
were soon quieted by the assurance from an early 
hunter, who w^as near by shooting prairie chickens 
w^hile they were yet on the roost, that the stage had 
not yet come. So we kept on to the spacious store 
where the post office is kept, where I waited and 
waited for the stage to come which was to bring me 
to St. Paul. It did not arrive till eight o'clock. I 
thought if every one who had a part to perform in 
starting off the stage from Watab (for It had started 
out from there that morning), was obliged to make 
the entire journey of 80 miles to St. Paul in the 

(156) 



ST. CI.OUI) T(» ST. TAliL. If)? 

stage, they would prefer to get up a little earlier 
rather than have the last part of the trip extended 
into "the dead waist and middle of the night." I 
remarked to the driver, who is a very clever young 
man, that the stage wdiich left St. Paul started as 
early as five o'clock, and I could not see wdiy it was 
not as necessary to start as early in going down, 
inasmuch as the earlier we started the less of the 
night darkness we had to travel in. He perfectly 
agreed with me, and attributed his inability to start 
earlier to the dilatory arrangements at the hotel. 
When jogging along at about eleven at night be- 
tween St. Anthony and the city, I could not help 
begrudging every minute of fair daylight which had 
been wasted. The theory of Judge Story, that it 
don't make much difference when a man gets up in 
the morning, provided he is wide awake after he is 
up, will do very w^ell, perhaps, except when one is 
to start on a journey in the stage. 

I took a seat by the driver's side, the weather 
being clear and mild, and had an unobstructed and 
delightful view of every object, and there seemed to 
be none but pleasant objects in range of the great 
highway. Though there is, between every village, 
population enough to remind one constantly that he 
is in a settled country, the broad extent yet unoccu- 
pied proclaims that there is still room enough. 
Below Sauk Rapids a good deal of the land on the 
road side is in the hands of speculators. This, it is 
understood, is on the east side of the Mississippi. 



158 MINNESOTA AND DACOTAII. 

On the west side there are more settlements. But 
yet there are many farms, with tidy white cottages ; 
and in some pLices are to be seen well-arranged 
flower-gardens. The most attractive scenery to me, 
however, was the ample corn-fields, which, set in a 
groundwork of interminable virgin soil, are pictures 
which best reflect the true destiny and usefulness 
of an agricultural region. We met numerous teams 
heavily laden with furniture or provisions, destined 
for the different settlements above. The teams are 
principally drawn by two horses ; and, as the road 
is extremely level and smooth, are capable of taking 
on as much freight as under other circumstances 
could be drawn by four horses. Mules do not ap- 
pear to be appreciated up this w^ay so much as in 
Missouri or Kentucky. Nor was it unusual to meet 
light carriages with a gentleman and lady, who, 
from the luggage, &c., aboard, appeared to have 
been on somewhat of an extensive shopping expedi- 
tion. And I might as well say here, if I havn't 
yet said it, that the Minnesotians are supplied with 
uncommonly good horses. I do not remember to 
have seen a mean horse in the territory. I suppose, 
as considerable pains are taken in raising stock, 
poor horses are not raised at all ; and it will not 
pay to import poor ones. A company of surveyors 
whom we met excited a curiosity which I was not 
able to solve. It looked odd enough to see a dozen 
men walking by the side or behind a small one-horse 
cart ; the latter containing some sort of baggage 



ST. CLOUD TO ST. PAUL. 159 

which W0.S covered over, as it appeared, with camp- 
ing fixtures. It was more questionable whether the 
team belonged to the men than that the men were 
connected with the team. The men were mostly 
young and very intelligent-looking, dressed with 
woollen shirts as if for out door service, and I almost 
guessed they were surveyors ; yet still thought they 
were a party of new-comers who had concluded to 
club together to make their preemption claim. But 
surveyors they were. 

The town of Humboldt is the county seat for 
Sherburne county. It lies between the Mississippi 
and Snake rivers. The part of the town which I 
saw was a very small part. Mr. Brown's residence, 
which is delightfully situated on the shore of a lake, 
is at once the court house and the post office, besides 
being the general emporium and magnate of Hum- 
boldt business and society. Furthermore, it is the 
place where the stage changes horses and where 
passengers on the down trip stop to dine. It was 
here we stopped to dine ; and as the place had been 
a good deal applauded for its table-d'hote, a stand- 
ard element of which was said to be baked fish, 
right out of the big lake, I at least had formed very 
luxurious expectations. Mr. Brown was away. We 
had met his lively countenance on his way up to a 
democratic caucus. Perhaps that accounted for our 
not having baked fish, for fish we certainly did not 
have. The dinner was substantial, however, and 
yielded to appetites which had been sharpened by a 



160 MINNESOTA AND DACOTAII. 

half day's inhalation of serene October air. We 
had all become infused with a spirit of despatch ; 
and were all ready to start, and did start, in half an 
hour from the time we arrived at the house. 

We had not proceeded far after dinner before 
meeting the Monticello stage, which runs between 
the thriving village of that name — on the west bank 
of the Mississippi — and St. Paul. It carries a daily 
mail. There were several passengers aboard. 

One little incident in our afternoon travel I will 
mention, as it appeared to aiford more pleasure to 
the rest of the passengers than it did to me. Where 
the stage was to stop for fifteen or twenty minutes, 
either to change mail or horses, I had invariably 
walked on a mile, if I could get as far, for the sake 
of variety and exercise. So when we came to the 
pretty village of Anoka (at the mouth of Rum River), 
where the mail was to be changed, I started on foot 
and alone. But unfortunately and unconsciously I 
took the wrong road. I had walked a mile I think 
— for twenty minutes at least had expired since I 
started — and being in the outskirts of the town, in 
the midst of farms and gardens, turned up to a gar- 
den-fence, on the other side of which a gentleman of 
professional — I rather thought clerical appearance 
— was feeding a cow on pumpkins. I had not seen 
pumpkins so abundant since my earliest youth, when 
I used to do a similar thins;. I rather thought too 
that the gentleman whom I accosted was a Yankee, 



ST. CLOUD TO ST. PAUL. IGl 

and after talking a few minutes with him, so much 
did he exceed me in asking questions, that I felt 
sure he was one. How thankful I ought to be that 
he was one ! for otherwise it is probable he would 
not have ascertained where, and for what purpose, 
I was walking. He informed me I was on the 
wrong road ; that the stage took a road further 
west, which was out of sight ; and that I had better 
go on a little further and then cross the open prai- 
rie. Then for the first time did I notice that the 
road I had taken was but a street, not half so much 
worn as the main road. I followed his friendly 
advice, and feeling some despair I hastened on at a 
swift run, and as I advanced towards where I thought 
the right road ought to be, though I could neither 
see it nor the stage, " called so loud that all the 
hollow deep of" — the prairies might have resounded. 
At last, when quite out of breath and hoarse with 
loud vociferation, I descried the stage rolling on at 
a rapid rate. Then I renewed my calls, and brought 
it up standing. After clambering over a few fences, 
sweating and florid, I got to the stage and resumed 
my seat, amidst the pleasant merriment of the pas- 
sengers. The driver was kind enough to say that 
he began to suspect I had taken the wrong road, 
and was about to turn round and come after me — 
that he certainly would not have left me behind, &c. 
I was happy, nevertheless, that my mistake did not 
retard the stage. But I do not intend to abandon 
14* 



162 MINNESOTA AND DACOTAII. 

the practice of walking on before the stage when- 
ever it stops to change horses. 

Just in the edge of twilight, and when we were a 
little way this side of Coon Creek, where we had 
changed horses again, we came in sight of a large 
fire. It was too much in one spot to be a prairie 
fire ; and as we drove on the sad apprehension that 
it was a stack of hay was confirmed. The flames 
rose up in wide sheets, and cast a steady glare upon 
the landscape. It was a gorgeous yet a dismal 
sight. It always seems worse to see grain destroyed 
by fire than ordinary merchandise. Several stacks 
were burning. We saw that the usual precaution 
against prairie fires had been taken. These consist 
in ploughing several furrows around the stack, or by 
burning the grass around it to prevent the flames 
from reaching it. It was therefore suspected that 
some rascal had applied the torch to the hay ; though 
for humanity's sake we hoped it was not so. The 
terrible prairie fires, which every autumn waste the 
western plains, are frequently started through the 
gross carelessness of people who camp out, and leave 
their fires burning;. 

Some of us took supper at St. Anthony. I cannot 
say much of the hotel de facto. The table was not 
as good as I found on the way at other places above. 
There is a hotel now being built there out of stone, 
which I am confident will exceed anything in the 
territory, if we except the Fuller House. It is pos- 



ST. CLOUD TO ST. PAUL. 10-3 

sible wc all felt invigorated and improved by the 
supper, for we rode the rest of the way in a very 
crowded stage without suffering any exhibition of 
ill temper to speak of, and got into St. Paul at last, 
when it was not far from eleven ; and after seventy- 
jBve miles of staging, the luxurious accommodations 
of the Fuller House seemed more inviting than 
ever 



LETTER XVI. 

PROGRESS. 

Rapid growth of the North-West — Projected railroads — Territorial 
system of the United States — Inquiry into the cause of Western 
progress — Influence of just laws and institutions — Lord Bacon's 
remark. 

St. Paul, October, 1856. 

The progress which has characterized the settle- 
ment of the territory of Minnesota, presents to the 
notice of the student of history and political econ- 
omy some important facts. The growth of a fron- 
tier community, so orderly, so rapid, and having so 
much of the conservative element in it, has rarely 
been instanced in the annals of the world. In less 
time than it takes the government to build a custom 
house we see an unsettled territory grown to the 
size of a respectable state, in wealth, in population, 
in power. A territory, too, which ten years ago 
seemed to be an incredible distance from the civ- 
ilized portions of the country ; and which was 
thought by most people to be in a latitude that 
would defeat the energy and the toil of man. To- 
day it could bring into the field a larger army than 
Washington took command of at the beginning of 
our revolution I 

(164) 



PROGRESS. 165 

In 1849, the year of its organization, the popula- 
tion of the territory was 4780 ; now it is estimated 
to be nearly 200,000. In 1852 there were 42 post 
offices in the territory, now there are 253. The 
number of acres of public land sold during the fis- 
cal year ending 30th June, 1852, was 15,258. 
For the year ending 30th June, 1856, the number 
of acres sold was 1,002,130. 

When we contemplate the headlong progress of 
Western growth in its innumerable evidences of 
energy, we admit the truth of what the Roman poet 
said — nil mo7'talibus ardimi est — that there is nothing 
too difficult for man. In the narrative of his explora- 
tion to the Mississippi in 1820, along with General 
Cass, Mr. Schoolcraft tells us how Chicago then 
appeared. " We founds" says he, ^^four or five 
families living here.'' Four or five families was 
the extent of the population of Chicago in 1820 ! 
In 1836 it had 4853 inhabitants. In 1855 its popu- 
lation was 85,000. The history of many western 
towns that have sprung up within ten years is cha- 
racterized by much the same sort of thrift. Unless 
some terrible scourge shall come to desolate the 
land, or unless industry herself shall turn to sloth, 
a few more years will present the magnificent spec- 
tacle of the entire domain stretching from this 
frontier to the Pacific coast, transformed into a 
region of culture, " full of life and splendor and 

joy-" 

At present there are no railroads in operation in 



IGG MINNESOTA AND DACOTAH. 

Minnesota ; but those which are already projected 
indicate, as well as any statistics, the progress which 
is taking place. The Chicago, St. Paul, and Fond- 
du-Lac Railroad was commenced some two years 
ago at Chicago, and over 100 miles of it are com- 
pleted. It is to run via Hudson in Wisconsin, Still- 
water, St. Paul, and St. Anthony in Minnesota to 
the western boundary of the territory. Recently 
it has united with the Milwaukee and La Cross Road, 
which secures several millions of acres of valuable 
land, donated by congress, and which will enable the 
stockholders to complete the road to St. Paul and 
St. Anthony within two years. A road has been 
surveyed from the head of Lake Superior via St. 
Paul to the southern line of the territory, and will 
soon be Avorked. The Milwaukee and Mississippi 
Railroad Company will in a few weeks have their 
road completed to Prairie du Chien, and are extend- 
ing it on the east side of the Mississippi to St. Paul. 
Another road is being built up the valley of the 
Red Cedar River in Iowa to Minneapolis. The 
Keokuck road is in operation over fifty miles, and 
will soon be under contract to St. Paul. This road 
is to run via the valley of the Des Moines River, 
through the rich coal fields of Iowa, and will supply 
the upper Mississippi and Lake Superior region 
with coal. 

The Green Bay and Minnesota Railroad Company 
has been organized and the route selected. This 
road will soon be commenced. The active men 



PROGRESS. 1(37 

engaged in the enterprise reside in Green Bay and 
Stillwater. A company has been formed and will 
soon commence a road from Winona to the western 
line of the territory. The St. Anthony and St. 
Paul Railroad Company will have their line under 
contract early the coming season. The Milwaukee 
and La Cross Company propose continuing their 
road west through the valley of Root River, 
through Minnesota to the Missouri River. Another 
company has been formed for building a road from 
the head of Lake Superior to the Red River of the 
North. ^ Such are some of the railroad enterprises 
which are under way, and which will contribute at 
an early day to develop the opulent resources of the 
territory. A railroad through this part of the 
country to the Pacific is among the probable events 
of the present generation. 

1 The following highly instructive article on navigation, I take 
from The Pioneer and Democrat (St. Paul), of the 20th November: 

"Growth OF the Steamboating Business — The Season of 1856. 
— About ten years after the first successful attempt at steamboat navi- 
gation on the Ohio River, the first steamboat that ever ascended tho 
Upper Mis.-^iiij^ippi River to Fort Snelling, arrived at that post. This 
was the 'Virginia,' a stern-wheel boat, which arrived at the Fort in 
the early part of May, 1823. From 1823 to IS-li there were but few 
arrivals each year — sometimes not more than two or three. Tho 
steamers running on the Upper Mississippi, at that time, were used 
altogether to transport supplies for the Indian traders and the troops 
stationed at Fort Snelling. Previous to the arrival of the Virginia, 
keel boats were used for this purpose, and sixty days' time, from St. 
Louis to the Fort, was considered a good trip. 

"By a reference to our files, we are enabled to present, at a glance, 
tho astonishing increase in steamboating business since 1844. The 
first boat to arrive that year, was the Otter, commanded by Captain 



Year. 




1S44 . . . . 


1815 . 




1816 . 




1817 . 




1S48 . 




1819 . 




1S.50 . 




1851 . 




lSo2 . 




18.5.3 . 




18.51 . 




18.55 . 




1856 . 





]<)<S MINNf:SOTA AND/DACOTAII. 

It may be well to pause here a moment and in- 
quire into the causes which contribute so wonderfully 
to build up empire in our north-western domain. 

Harris. The following table presents the number of arrivals since 

that time : — 

First Boat. No. of Arrioals. River Closed^ 

April 6 41 Nov. 23 

April 6 43 Nov. 26 

March 31 24 , Dec. 5 

April 7 47 Nov. 29 

April 7 . . . . , . 63 Dec. 4 

April 9 . . . . , . 85 Dec. 7 

Ain-il 9 101 Dec. 4 

April 4 119 Nov. 28 

April 16 171 . • Nov. 18 

April 11 2(X) Nov. 30 

April 8 245 Nov. 27 

April 17 560 Nov. 20 

April 18 837 Nov. 10 

"In 1851, three boats went up the Minnesota River, and in 1852, 
one boat ran regularly up that stream during the season. In 1S53, 
the business required an average of one boat per day. In 1S54, the 
business had largely increased, and in 1855, the arrivals of steamers 
from the Minnesota, amounted to 119. 

" The present season, on the Mississippi, has been a very prosperous 
one, and the arrivals at St. Paul exhibit a gratifying increase over 
any preceding year, notwithstanding the season of navigation has 
been two weeks shorter than last season. Owing to the unusually 
early gorge in the river at Hastings, upwards of fifty steamers bound 
for this port, and heavily laden with merchandise and produce, were 
compelled to discharge their cargoes at Hastings .and Stillwater. 

"Navigation this season opened on the 18th of April. The Lady 
Franklin arrived on the evening of that day from Galena. Previous 
to her arrival, there had been eighteen arrivals at our landing from 
the head of Lake Pepin, and twelve arrivals at the foot of the lake, 
from Galena and Dubuque. 

"During the present season, seventy-eight different steamers have 
arrived at our wharf, from the points mentioned in the following 
table. This table we draw mainly from the books of the City Mar- 
shal, and by reference to our files, 

FROM ST. LOUIS. 

Boati. N'o. of Tfips. Boats. JVo. of Trips. Boats. No. of Trips. 

Ben Coiirsiii .... 19 A\uhibon 5 Lnella 8 

A. G. Masnn .... 8 Golden State .... 8 Cheviot 1 

Motropolitau .... 13 Laclede 11 James Lyon .... 7 



PROGRESS. 



1G9 



The territorial system of the United States has 
some analogy, it is true, to the colonial system of 
Great Britain — not the colonial system which ex- 



Boats. iV 


b. 


"/ 


Ti- 


lls. 


Vienna 5 


Now York . 








1 


Delegate 








1 


Jilanstield . 








7 


Fi)rest Rose 








1 


]5en B'llt 








2 


.1. P. Tweed 








1 


Fire Cauoe 








2 


Carrier . . 








1 


Julia Dean . 








1 


Kesoluto 








2 


Gossamer 








4 


Thomas Scott 








6 



Falls City . 
Diamond . 



Alliambra 
Koyal Arch 



Excelsior 
Kate Cassel 
Clarion 



II. T. Yeatman 
Globe . . . 
Clarion . . 
Reveille . . 



Boats. Ko. of Trips. 

Gipsey 2 

W. G. Woodside ... I 

York State .... 5 

jNIattie Wavne . . . t 

Brazil ." 4 

Dan Convers .... 1 

Henrietta 4 

Editor 5 

]\Iiunesota Belle . . . S 

Rochester 2 

Oakland 7 

Grace Darling ... 4 

Montauk 3 



Boats 

Fair_y Queen 
Saint I^ouis 
Americus 
Atlanta 
Jacob Tral)cr 
White Bluffs 
Areola . . 
Conewago . 
Lucie INIay 
Badger State 
Sam Young 
Violet . . 



Total arrivals from St. Louis, 
FROM FULTON CITY. 



I\"o of Tn'2>s. 
. 1 
1 
, 2 
I 
(! 
I 
S 
10 

, s 

5 
4 
1 

212 



11 H. T. Yeatman . . 11 Time and Tide 
1 

Total from Fulton City, 

FROM GALENA AND DLTfLEITH. 



Lady Franklin ... 2.3 Northern Belle 
Galena ."JO Banjo . . . 



21 AVar Eagle 
6 City Belle 



2S Golden Era 

1 Ocean Wave , 

17 Granite State 

30 Greek Slave 



Total from Galena and Dunleith, 



5 

28 



29 

28 

12 

3 

228 



FROM DUBUQUE. 

23 Tishimingo .... 3 Flora 29 

29 Fanny Harris ... 23 Hamburg 12 

11 . 

Total from Dubuque, 135 



FROM MINNESOTA RIVER. 



4 H. S. Allen . . 
34 Time and Tide . 
12 "Wave .... 
40 

Total from Jliunesota River, 

RECAPITULATION. 



10 Erpator 4l) 

11 Minnesota Valley . . 21) 
29 Berlin ..."... 10 

216 



Number of arrivals from St. Louis 212 

" " " " Fulton City . , 28 

" " " " Galena and Dunleith 228 

" " " " Dnbuque 13.5 

" " " " Minnesota River 2H) 

" " " " head of Lake Pepin 18 



Whole number of boats. 



r8. 



Whole number of arrivals. 



837 



"It will be seen from the above, that ten more steamers have been 
engaged in this trade tluring the present year than last; while in the 
15 



170 xMIXXE::OTA AND DACUTAH. - 

isted in the days of the stamp act — but that which 
a wiser statesmanship has more recently inaugu- 
rated. The relation between the general govern- 
ment and our territories is like that of guardian and 
ward — the relation of a protector, not that of a 
master. Nor can we find in the history of anti- 
quity any such relationship between colonies and the 
mother country, whether we consider the system of 
Phoenicia, where first was exhibited the doctrine of 
non-intervention, or the tribute-paying colonies of 
Carthage. That system which was peculiar to 
Greece, " resting not on state contrivances and 
economical theories, but on religious sympathies 
and ancestral associations," came as near perhaps 
in spirit to ours as any on record. The patronage 
which the government bestows on new territories is 
one of the sources of their growth which ought not to 
be overlooked. Instead of making the territory a 
dependency and drawing from it a tax, the govern- 
ment pays its political expenses, builds its roads, 
and gives it a fair start in the world. 

whole number of arrivals the increase has been two hundred and 
sixty-seven. 

"The business on the Minnesota has j^rcatly increapcd this year. 
This was to have been expected, considering the j^roat increase in the 
population of that flourishing portion of our Territory. 

"A thriving trade has sprung up between the southern counties 
of Minnesota, and Galena and Dubuque. During the greater portion 
of the summer, the War Eagle and Tisliimingo run regularly to 
"Winona. 

"On the Upper Mississippi there are now three steamers, the Gov. 
Ramsay, H. M. Rice, and North Star (new). During the season these 
boats ran between St. Anthony and Sauk Rapids." 



Another cause of tlie successful growth of our 
territories in general, and of Minnesota in particu- 
lar, is the ready market which is found in the limits 
of the territory for everything which can be raised 
from a generous soil or wrought by industrious hands. 
The farmer has a ready market for everything that 
is good to eat or to wear; the artisan is driven by 
unceasing demands upon his skill. This arises from 
extensive emigration. Another reason, also, for the 
rapid growth of the territory, is, that the farmer is 
not dela^'ed by forests, but finds, outside of pleasant 
groves of woodland, a smooth, unencumbered soil, 
ready for the plough the first day he arrives. 

But if a salubrious climate, a fertile soil, clear 
and copious streams, and other material elements, 
can be reckoned among its physical resources, there 
are other elements of empire connected with its 
moral and political welfare which are indispensable. 
Why is it that Italy is not great ? Why is it the 
South American republics are rusting into abject 
decay ? Is it because they have not enough physi- 
cal resources, or because their climate is not healthy ? 
Certainly not. It is because their political institu- 
tions are rotten and oppressive ; because ignorance 
prevents the groAvth of a wholesome public opinion. 
It is the want of the right sort of men and institu- 
tions that there is 

"Sloth in the mart and schism within the temple." 

" Let states that aim at greatness," says Lord 



172 MLXNlvSOTA AND DACvOTAH. 

Bacon, " take heed how their nobility and gentle- 
men do multiply too fast ; for that maketh the com- 
mon subject to be a peasant and base swain, driven 
out of heart, and, in effect, but a gentleman's labo- 
rer." He who seeks for the true cause of the 
greatness and thrift of our northwestern states will 
find it not less in the influence of just laws and the 
education of all classes of men, than in the exist- 
ence of productive fields and in the means of phy- 
sical wealth. 

" What constitutes a state ? 
Not high raised battlement, or labored mound, 

Thick wall, or moated gate ; 
Not cities proud, with spires and turrets crowned ; 

Not bays and broad armed ports, 
Where, laughing at the storm, proud navies ride; 

But men, high minded men. 



PART II. 
TERRITORY OF DACOTAH. 



" Populous cities and states are springing up. as if by enchantment, from 
THE BOSOM OF OUR WESTERN WILDS." — The Ib-est'dcnCs Auv.ual Message for 1856. 



15* (173) 



THE PROPOSED NEW TERRITORY OF 

DACOTAH. 



Organization of Minnesota as a state — Suggestions as to its division — 
Views of Captain Pope— Character and resources of the new terri- 
tory to be left adjoining — Its occupation by the Dacotah Indians — 
Its organization and name. 

The territory of Minnesota according to its pre- 
sent boundaries embraces an area of 141,839 square 
miles exclusive of water ; — a domain four times as 
large as the State of Ohio, and twelve times as large 
as Holland, when her commerce was unrivalled and 
her fleets ruled the sea. Its limits take in three of 
the largest rivers of North America ; the Missis- 
sippi, the Missouri, and the Red River of the North. 
Though remote from the sea board, ships can go 
out from its harbors to the ocean in two if not three 
different channels. Its delightful scenery of lakes 
and water-falls, of prairie and woodland, are not 
more alluring to the tourist, than are its invigora- 
ting climate and its verdant fields attractive to the 
husbandman. It has been organized seven years ; 
and its resources have become so much developed, 
and its population so large, there is a general dis- 
position among the people to have a state organiza- 

(175) 



170 MINA'ESOTA AND DACOTAII. 

tion, and be admitted into the Confederacy of the 
Union. ^ A measure of this kind is not now prema- 
ture : on the contrary, it is not for the interest of 
the general government any longer to defray the 
expenses of the territory ; and the adoption of a 
state organization, throwing the taxes upon the 
people, would give rise to a spirit of rivalry and 
emulation, a watchfulness as to the system of public 
expenditures, and a more jealous regard for the pro- 
per development of the physical resources of the state. 
The legislature which meets in January (1857), will 
without doubt take the subject into consideration, and 
provide for a convention to frame a constitution. 

This beino; the condition of thinsrs, the manner 
in which the territor}^ shall be divided — for no one 
can expect the new state will embrace the whole 
extent of the present territory — becomes a very in- 
teresting question. Some maintain, I believe, that 
the territory should be divided by a line running 
east and west. That would include in its limits the 
country bordering, for some distance, on the Mis- 
souri River ; possibly the head of navigation of the 
Red River of the North. But it is hardly probable 
that a line of this description would give Minnesota 
any part of Lake Superior. Others maintain that 
the territory should be divided by a line running 
north and south ; say, for instance, along the valley 

1 On tho 9tli of Decembei" Mr. Rice, the delegate in congress from 
Minnesota, gave notice to the house that ho would in a few daj's in- 
troduce a bill authorizing tho people of the territory to hold a con- 
vention for the purpose of forming a state constitution. 



rR()PO.<i;i) NEW TKKKITORY OF DACOTAII. 177 

of the Red River of the North. Such a division 
Avould not give Minnesota any of the Missouri River. 
But it wouhl have the benefit of the eastern valley 
of the Red River of the North ; of the entire region 
surrounding the sources of the Mississippi ; and of 
the broad expanse which lies on Lake Superior. 
The question is highly important, not only to Min- 
nesota, but to the territory Avhicli will be left out- 
side of it ; and it should be decided with a due re- 
gard to the interests of both.^ 

^ I take pleasure in inserting here a note which I have had tlio 
honor to receive from Captain Pope, of the Corps of Topographical 
Engineers. I have before had occasion to quote from the able and 
instructive report, of his exploration of Minnesota. 

Washixgtox, D. C. Dec. 10, 1S56. 

Dear Sir: — Your note of the 6th instant is before me; and I will 
premise my reply by saying that the suggestions I shall offer to your 
inquiries are based upon my knowledge of the condition of the terri- 
tory in 1849, which circumstances beyond my acquaintance may have 
materially modified since. 

The important points to be secured for the new state to be erected 
in the territory of Minnesota, seem to be: — first a harbor on Lake 
Superior, easily accessible from the West; second, the whole course 
of the Mississippi to the Iowa line; and, third, the head of naviga- 
tion of the Red River of the North. It is unnecessary to point out 
the advantages of securing these features to the new state ; and to do 
so without enclosing too many square miles of territory, I would 
suggest the following boundaries, viz. : 

Commencing on the 49th parallel of latitude, where it is intersected 
by the Red River of the North, to follow the line of deepest water of 
that river to the mouth of the Rois des Sioux (or Sioux Wood) River; 
thence up the middle of that stream to the south-west point of Lake 
Traverse; thenco following a due south line to the northern bound- 
ary of the state of Iowa (43° 30' north latitude); thence along tliis 
boundary line to the Mississippi River; thence up the middle of the 
Mississippi River to the mouth of the St. Croix River; thence along 



178 i\ri.\.\i:soTA and dacotau. 

If the division last mentioned — or one on tliat 
plan — is made, there will then be left Avest of the 
state of Minnesota an extent of country embracing 

the western boundary line of the state of Wisconsin to its intersection 
with the St. Louis River; thence down the middle of that river to 
Lake Superior; thence following the coast of the lake to its intersec- 
tion with the boundary line between the United States and the British 
possessions, and following this boundary to the place of beginning. 

These boundaries will enclose an area of about 65,000 square miles 
of the best agricultural and manufacturing region in the territory, 
and will form a state of unrivalled advantages. That portion of the 
territory set aside by the boundary line will be of little value for 
many years to come. It presents features differing but little from 
the region of prairie and table land west of the frontier of Missouri 
and Arkansas. From this, of course, are to be excepted the western 
half of the valley of the Red River and of the Big Sioux River, which 
are as productive as any portion of the territory, which, with the 
region enclosed between them, would contain arable land sufficient 
for another state of smaller dimensions. 

As you will find stated and fully explained in my report of Febru- 
ary, 1850, the valley of the Red River of the North must find an out- 
let for its productions towards the south, either through the great 
lakes or by the Mississippi River. The necessity, therefore, of con- 
necting the head of its navigation with a harbor on Lake Superior, 
and a port on the Mississippi, is sufficiently apparent. As each of 
these lines of railroad will run through the most fertile and desirable 
portion of the territory, they will have a value far beyond the mere 
object of transporting the products of the Red River valley. 

The construction of these roads — in fact the mere location of them 
— will secure a population along the routes at once, and will open a 
country equal to any in the world. 

As these views have been fully elaborated in my report of 1850, I 
refer you to that paper for the detailed information upon which these 
views and suggestions are based. 

I am sir, respectfully, 3'our obedient servant, 

Jxo. Pope. 

C. C. Andrews, Esq., 

Washington, D. C. 



PROPOSED NEW TERIUTOKY OF DACOTAII. 179 

more than half of the territory as it now is ; extend- 
ing from latitude 42° 30' to the 49th degree ; and 
embracinj]^ six desjrees of lonoiitnde — 97th to 103d — 
at its northern extreme. The Missouri River would 
constitute nearly the whole of its western boundary. 
In the northerly part the Mouse and Pembina 
Rivers are among its largest streams ; in the middle 
flows the large and finely wooded Shayenne, " whoso 
valley possesses a fertile soil and offers many induce- 
ments to its settlement ;" while towards the south it 
would have theJacojues^the Big Sioux, the Vermillion, 
and the head waters of the St. Peter's. In its supply 
of copious streams, nature seems there to have been 
lavish. Of the Big Sioux River, M. Nicollet says, 
its Indian name means that it is continuously lined 
with wood ; that its length cannot be less than three 
hundred and fifty miles. " It flows through a beau- 
tiful and fertile country ; amidst which the Daco- 
tahs, inhabiting the valleys of the St. Peter's and 
Missouri, have always kept up summer establish- 
ments on the borders of the adjoining lakes, whilst; 
they hunted the river banks. Buffalo herds are 
confidently expected to be met with here at all sea- 
sons of the year." The Jacques (the Indian name 
of which is Tchan-sansan) " takes its rise on the 
plateau of the Missouri beyond the parallel of 47° 
north ; and after pursuing nearly a north and south 
course, empties into the Missouri River below 43°. 
It is deemed navisrable with small huntino; canoes 
for between five hundred and six hundred miles ; but 



180 MINNESOTA AND DACOTAH. 

below OtuJtuoJa, it will float much larger boats. 
The shores of the river are generally tolerably well 
v/oodcd, though only at intervals. Along those por- 
tions where it widens into lakes, very eligible situa- 
tions for farms would be found." The same explorer 
says, the most important tributary of the Jacques is 
the Elm River, which " might not deserve any special 
mention as a navigable stream, but is very well 
worthy of notice on account of the timber growing 
on its own banks and those of its forks." lie fur- 
ther observes (Report, p. 46) that " the basin of the 
river Jacques, between the two coteaux and in the 
latitude of Otuhuoja, may be laid down as having a 
breadth of eighty miles, sloping gradually down 
from an elevation of seven hundred to seven hundred 
and fifty feet. These dimensions, of course, vary 
in the different parts of the valley ; but what I have 
said will convey some idea of the immense prairie 
watered by the Tehan-sansan, which has been 
deemed by all travellers to those distant regions 
perhaps the most beautiful within the territory of 
the United States." 

The middle and northern part comprises an 
elevated plain, of average fertility and tolerably 
wooded. Towards the south it is characterized by 
bold undulations. The valley of the Missouri is 
narrow ; and the bluffs which border upon it are 
abrupt and high. The country is adapted to agri- 
cultural pursuits, and though inferior as a general 
thing to much of Minnesota, affords promise of 



PROPOSED NEW TERRITORY OF DACOTAII. 181 

thrift and properity in its future. It is blessed with 
a salubrious climate. Dr. Suckley, who accompa- 
nied the expedition of Gov. Stevens through that 
part of the West, as far as Puget Sound, says in his 
official report: " On reviewing the whole route, the 
unequalled and unparalleled good health of the 
command during a march of over eighteen hundred 
miles appears remarkable ; especially when we con- 
sider the hardships and exposures necessarily inci- 
dent to such a trip. Not a case of ague or fever 
occurred. Such a state of health could only be ac- 
counted for by the great salubrity of the countries 
passed through, and their freedom from malarious 
or other endemic disease." 

Governor Stevens has some comprehensive re- 
marks concerning that part of the country in his 
report. " The Grand Plateau of the Bois des Sioux 
and the Mouse River valley are the two keys of 
railroad communication from the Mississippi River 
Avestward through the territory of Minnesota. 
The Bois des Sioux is a river believed to be navi- 
gable for steamers of light draught, flowing north- 
ward from Lake Traverse into the Red River of the 
North, and the plateau of the Bois des Sioux may 
be considered as extending from south of Lake 
Traverse to the south bend of the Red River, and 
from the Rabbit River, some thirty miles east of 
the Bois des Sioux River, to the Dead Colt Hillock. 
This plateau separates the rivers flowing into 

Hudson's Bay from those flowing into the Missis- 
m 



182 MINNESOTA AND DACOTA II. 

sippi River. The Mouse River valley, in the west- 
ern portion of Minnesota, is from ten to twenty 
miles broad ; is separated from the Missouri River 
by the Coteau du Missouri, some six hundred feet 
high, and it is about the same level as the parallel 
valley of the Missouri." — (Report, ch. 4.) 

M. Nicollet was a scientific or matter of fact 
man, wdio preferred to talk about " erratic blocks" 
and " cretaceous formations" rather than to indulge 
in poetic descriptions. The outline wdiich follows, 
however, of the western part of the territory is 
what he considers " a faint description of this beau- 
tiful country." ''The basin of the Upper Missisippi 
is separated in a great part of its extent from that 
of the Missouri, by an elevated plain ; the appear- 
ance of which, seen from the valley of the St. 
Peter's or that of the Jacques, looming as it were a 
distant shore, has suggested for it the name of Coteau 
des Prairies. Its more appropriate designation would 
be that oi plateau, which means something more than 
is conveyed to the mind by the expression, a plain. 
Its northern extremity is in latitude 46*^, extending 
to 43° ; after which it loses its distinctive elevation 
above the surrounding plains, and passes into rolling 
prairies. Its length is about tv/o hundred miles, 
and its general direction N. N. W. and S. S. E. 
Its northern termination (called Tete du Couteau 
in consequence of its peculiar configuration) is not 
more than fifteen to twenty miles across ; its eleva- 
tion above the level of the Big Stone Lake is eight 



IMlOl'«)SKi) N'KW Ti.liKlTUllY OF DACOTAII. IH'o 

hundred and ninety feet, and above tlie ocean one 
thousand nine hundred and sixteen feet. Starting 
from this extremity (that is, the head of the Coteau), 
the surface of the plateau is undulating, forming 
many dividing ridges which separate the waters 
flowing into the St. Peter's and the Mississippi from 
those of the Missouri. Under the 44th degree of 
latitude, the breadth of the Coteau is about forty 
miles, and its mean elevation is here reduced to 
one thousand four hundred and fifty feet above the 
sea. Within this space its two slopes are rather 
abrupt, crowned with verdure, and scolloped by 
deep ravines thickly shaded with bushes, forming 
the beds of rivulets that water the subjacent plains. 

The Coteau itself is isolated, in the midst of 
boundless and fertile prairies, extending to the west, 
to the north, and into the valley of the St. Peter's. 

The plain at its northern extremity is a most 
beautiful tract of land diversified by hills, dales, 
woodland, and lakes, the latter abounding in fish. 
This region of country is probably the most elevated 
between the Gulf of Mexico and Hudson's Bay. 
From its summit, proceeding from its western to its 
eastern limits, grand views are afi'orded. At its 
eastern border particularly, the prospect is magnifi- 
cent beyond description, extending over the im- 
mense green turf that forms the basin of the Red 
River of the North, the forest-capped summits of 
the hauteurs des terres that surround the sources of 
the Mississippi, the granitic valley of the Upper 



18i MINNESOTA AND DACOTAII. 

St. Peter's, and the depressions in which are Lake 
Traverse and the Big Stone Lake. There can be 
no doubt that in future times this region -svill be the 
summer resort of the wealthy of the land." (pp. 9, 
10.) 

I will pass over what he says of the " vast and 
magnificent valley of the Red River of the North," 
having before given some account of that region, 
and merely give his description of the largest lake 
which lies in the northern part of the territory : 
" The greatest extension of Devil's Lake is at least 
forty miles, — but may be more, as we did not, and 
could not, ascertain the end of the north-west bay, 
which I left undefined on the map. It is bordered 
by hills that are pretty well w^ooded on one side, but 
furrowed by ravines and couldes, that are taken ad- 
vantage of by warlike parties, both for attack and 
defence according to circumstances. The lake 
itself is so filled up with islands and promontories, 
that, in travelling along its shores, it is only occa- 
sionally that one gets a glimpse of its expanse. 
This description belongs only to its wooded side ; 
for, on the opposite side, the shores, though still 
bounded by hills, are destitute of trees, so as to 
exhibit an embankment to the east from ten to twelve 
miles long, upon an average breadth of three-quar- 
ters of a mile. The average breadth of the lake 
may be laid down at fifteen miles. Its waters ap- 
pear to be the drainings of the surrounding hills. 
We discovered no outlets in the whole extent of 



PROPOSED NEW TEKllITORY OF DACOTAIf. 185 

about three-quarters of its contour we could explore. 
At all events, if there be any they do not empty 
into the Red River of the North, since the lake is shut 
up in that direction, and since we found its true geo- 
graphical position to be much more to the north than 
it is ordinarily laid down upon maps. A single de- 
pression at its loAver end would intimate that, in 
times of high water, some discharge might possibly 
take place ; but then it would be into the SJiay- 
enne." (p. 50.) 

Such are some of the geographical outlines of 
the extensive domain which will be soon organized 
as a new territory. 

What will it be called ? If the practice hitherto 
followed of applying to territories the names which 
they have been called by their aboriginal inhabit- 
ants is still adhered to, this new territory will have 
the name of Dacotah. It is the correct or Indian 
name of those tribes whom we call the Sioux ; the 
latter beins; an unmeanino; Indian-French word. 
Dacotah means " united people," and is the word 
which the Indians apply to seven of their bands.^ 

1 The following description of the Dacotahs ia based on observa- 
tions made in 1823. "The Dacotahs are a large and powerful nation 
of Indians, distinct in their manners, language, habits, and opinions, 
from the Chippewas, Sauks, Foxes, and Naheawak or Kilisteno, as 
well as from all nations of the Algonquin stock. They are likewise 
unlike the Pawnees and the Minnetarees or Gros "Ventres. They in- 
habit a large district of country which may be comprised within the 
following limits : — From Prairie du Chien, on the Mississippi, by a 
curved line extending east of north and made to include all the east- 

16^ 



186 MINNESOTA AND DACOTAII. 

These tribes formerly occupied the country south 
and south-west of Lake Superior ; from whence they 
were gradually driven towards the Missouri and the 
Rocky Mountains by their powerful and dreaded 
enemies the Chippewas. Since which time they 
have been the acknowledged occupants of the broad 
region to which they have impressed a name. Seve- 
ral of the tribes, however, have crossed the Missouri, 
between which and the Rocky Mountains they still 
linger a barbaric life. We may now hope to realize 
the truth of Hiawatha's words : — 

era tributaries of tho Mississippi, to the first branch of Chippewa 
Itiver; tlue head waters of that streaia being claimed by the Chippewa 
Indians; thence by a line running west of north to the head of 
Spirit Lake; thence by a westerly line to the Riviere de Corbeau ; 
thence up that river to its head, near Otter Tail Lake; thence by a 
westerly line to Red River, and down that river to Pembina; thence 
by a south-westerly lino to the east bank of the Missouri near the 
Mandan villages ; thenco down the Missouri to a point probably not 
far from Soldier's River; thence by a line running east of north to 
Prairie du Chien. 

This immense extent of country is inhabited by a nation calling 
themselves, in their internal relations, the Dacotah, which means the 
Allied: but who, in their external relations, style themselves the 
Oohente Shakoan, which signines the nation of seven (council) fires. 
This refers to the following division which formerly prevailed among 
them, viz. : — 

1. Mende-Wahkan-toan, or people of the Spirit Lake. 

2. Wahkpa-toan, or people of the leaves. 

3. Sisi-toan, or Miakechakesa. 

4. Yank-toan-an, or Fern leaves. 

6. Yank-toan, or descended from the Fern leaves. 

6. Ti-toan, or Braggers. 

7. Wahkpako-toan, or the people that shoot at leaves. — Long's Ex- 
pedition to Sources of St. Peter's River, d:c., vol. 1, pp. 376, 378. 



PROPOSED NEW TERRITORY OF DACOTAII. 187 

" After many years of warfare, 
Many years of strife and bloodshed, 
There is peace between the Ojibways 
And the tribe of the Dacotahs." 

If it be asked what will be done with these tribes 
when the country comes to be settled, I would ob- 
serve, as I have said, that the present policy of 
the government is to procure their settlement on 
reservations. This limits them to smaller bound- 
aries ; and tends favorably to their civilization. I 
might also say here, that the title which the Indians 
have to the country they occupy is that of occu- 
pancy. They have the natural right to occupy the 
land ; but the absolute and sovereign title is in the 
United States. The Indians can dispose of their 
title to no party or power but the United States. 
When, however, the government wishes to extinguish 
their title of occupancy, it pays them a fair price 
for their lands according as may be provided by 
treaty. The policy of our government towards the 
Indians is eminently that of protection and preserva- 
tion ; not of conquest and extermination. 

Dacotah is the name now applied to the western 
part of Minnesota, and I am assured by the best 
informed men of that section, that such will be the 
name of the territory when organized. 



PART III. 
TABLE OF STATISTICS. 



I. LIST OF POST OFFICES AND POSTMASTEUS IN MINNESOTA. 
IT. LAND OFFICES, &C. 
III. NEWSPAPERS PUBLISHED IN MINNESOTA. 
IV. TABLE OF DISTANCES. 



(180) 



I. 



POST OFFICES AND POSTMASTERS. 



I HAVE been furnished, at brief notice, with the 
following accurate list of the Post Offices and Post- 
masters in Minnesota by my very excellent friend, 
Mr. John N. Oliver, of the Sixth Auditor's Office : 



LIST OF POST OFFICES AND POSTMASTERS IN THE 
TERRITOTY OF MINNESOTA, PREPARED FROM THE 
BOOKS OF THE APPOINTMENT OFFICE, POST OFFICE 
DEPARTMENT, TO DECEMBER 12, 1856. 



Post Office. 



Postmaster. \ Post Office. 



Postmaster. 



BENTON COUNTY. 
Belle Prairie . . Calvin C. Hicks 



Big Lake 
Clear Lake 
Crow Wing 
Elk River . 
Itasca . . 
Little Falls 
Royalton 
Sauk Rapids 
Swan River 
Watab . . 



Joseph Brown. 
F. E. Baldwin. 
Allen Morrison. 
John Q. A. Nickerson. 
John C. Bowers. 
C. II. Churchill. 
Rodolph's D. Kiuney. 
C. B. Vanstest. 
James Warren. 
David Oilman. 



BLUE EARTH COUNTY. 



Kasota . 
Mankato 
lyiberty . 
Pajutazee 
South Bend 



Isaac Allen. 
Parsons K. Johnson. 
Edward Brace. 
Andrew Robertson. 
Matthew Thompson. 



Winnebago Agency Henry Foster. 



BROWN COUNTY. 
New Ulm . . . Anton Kans. 
Sioux Agency 



Asa W. Daniels. 



CARVER COUNTY. 
Carver .... Joseph A. Sargent. 
Chaska .... Timothy D. Smith. 
La Belle .... Isaac Bertield. 



Scandia .... A. Bergquest. 
San Francisco . James B. Cotton. 
Young America . R. M. Kennedy. 

CHISAGO COUNTY. 



Amador . . . 
Cedar Creek . 
Chippewa . . 
Chisago City . 
Ilanley . . . 
Rushseby . . 
Sunrise City . 
Taylor's Falls 
Wyoming . . 



Lorenzo A. Lowden. 
Samuel Wyatt. 
J. P. Guiding. 
Henry S. Chiiger. 
John Ilanley. 
George B. Folsom. 
George S. Frost. 
Peter E. Walker. 
Jordan Egle. 



DAKOTA COUNTY. 



Athens . . 
Centralia . 
Empire City 
Farmington 
Fort Snelliu 
Hampton 
Hastings 
Lakeviile 
Le Sueuj 
Lewistou 
Mendota 
Ninninger 
Ottowa . 
Rose mount 
Vermillioa 
Waterford 



Jacob Whittemore. 
H. P. Sweet. 
Ralph P. Hamilton. 
Noredon Amedon. 
Franklin Steele. 
James Archer. 
John F. Marsh. 
Samuel P. Baker. 
Kostum K. Peck. 
Stephen N. Carey. 
Hypolite Dupues. 
Louis Loichot. 
Frank Y. Hoffstott. 
Andrew Keegan. 
Leonard Aid rich. 
Warren Atkinson. 



(191) 



192 



MINNESOTA AND DACOTAH. 



Post Office. Postmaster. 

DODGE COUNTY. 



Avon . . . 

Ashland 

Claremont 

Concord . . 

Alontorville 

Wasiosa 



Noah F. Berry. 
George Townseud. 
George Hitchcock. 
James M. Sumner. 
Jolin 11. Shober. 
Eli P. Waterman. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY. 



Blue Earth City 
Verona . . . , 



George B. Kiugsley. 
Newell Dewey. 



FILLMORE COUNTY. 



Bellville . 
BiK Spring 
Chatfield . 
Clarimona . 
Deer Creek 
Elkhorn . 
Elliota . . 
Etna . . . 
Fairview . 
Fillmore 
Forestville . 
Jordan . . 
Lenora . . 
L,ockiag Glas 
Newburg . 
Odessa . . 
Peterson 
Pilot Mound 
Preston . . 
Riceford 
Richland . 
Rushford . 
Spring Valley 
Uxbridge . 
"Waukokee . 



Wilson Bell. 
William Walter. 
Edwin B. Gere. 
Wm. F. Strong. 
William S. Hill. 
Jacob McQuillan. 
John C. Cleghorn. 
O. B. Bryant. 
John G. Bouldin. 
Robert Rea. 
Forest Henry. 
James M. Gilliss. 
Chas. B. Wilford. 
Lemuel Jones. 
Gabriel Gabrielson. 
Jacob P. Kennedy. 
Knud Peterson. 
Daniel B. Smith. 
L. Preston. 
W'm. D. Vandoren. 
Benjn. F. Tillotson. 
Sylvester S. Stebbins. 
Condello Wilkins. 
Daniel Crowell. 
John M. West. 



FREEBORN COUNTY. 



Albert Lea 
Geneva . . 
St. Nicholas 
Shell Rock 



Lorenzo Murray. 
John Heath. 
Saml. M. Thompson. 
Edward P. Skinner. 



GOODHUE COUNTY. 
Burr Oak Springs Henry Doyle. 
Cannon River Falls George JIcKenzie. 



Central Point 
Pine Island 
Poplar Grove 
Red Wing . 
Spencer . . 
Wacouta 
Westervelt 

HEN 

Bloomington 
Chanhassen 
Dayton . . 
Eden Prairie 
Elm Creek 
Harmony . 
Excelsior . 
Island City 



Charles W. Hackett. 

John Chance. 

John Lee. 

Henry C. Hoffman. 
. . Hans Mattson. 
. . George Post. 
. . E^'ert Westervelt. 

NEPIN COUNTY. 

. . Reuben B. Gibson. 

. . Henry M. Lyman. 

. . John Baxter. 

. . Jonas Staring. 

. . Charles Miles. 

. . James A. Dunsmore. 

. . Charles P. Smith. 

. . William F. Russell. 



Post Office. 

Maple Plain . 
Medicine Lake 
Minneapolis . 
Minnetonka . 
Osseo .... 
Perkinsville . 
Watertown 
W^zata . . . 



Postmaster. 

Irvin Shrewsbury. 
Francis Hagot. 
Alfred E. Ames. 
Levi W. Eastman. 
Warren Samson. 
N. T. Perkins. 
Alexander Moore. 
W. H. Chapman. 



HOUSTON COUNTY. 



Brownsville . . 
Caledonia . . . 
Hamilton . . . 
Hackett's Grove 
Ilokith . . . . 
Houston . . . , 
Loretta . . . . 
Looneyville . . 
La Crescent . , 
Mooney Creek 
Portland . . , 
Sheldon . . . , 
Spring Grove . , 
San Jacinto . . 
Wiscoy . . . 
Yucatan . . , 



Charles Brown. 
Wm. J. IMcKee. 
Charles Smith 
Emery Hackett. 
Edward Thompson. 
Ole Knudson. 
Edmund S. Lore. 
Daniel Wilson. 
William Gillett. 
Cyrus B. Sinclair. 
Alexj. Batcheller. 
John Paddock. 
Embric Knudson. 
George Canon. 
Benton Aldrich. 
T. A. Pope. 



LAKE COUNTY. 

Burlington . . Chas. B. Harbord. 



LE SUEUR COUNTY. 



Elysium 
Grandville 
Lexington , 
Waterville 



Silas S. Mundav. 
Bartlet Y. Couch. 
Henry Earl. 
Samuel D. Drake. 



McLEOD COUNTY. 



Glencoe . . 
Hutchinson 



Surman G. Simmons. 
Lewis Harrington. 



MEEKER COUNTY. 

Forest City . . Walter C. Bacon. 

MORRISON COUNTY. 

Little Falls . . Orlando A. ChurchilL 



MOWER COUNTY. 



Austin . . 
Frankford . 
High Forest 
Le Roy . . 



Alan son B. Vaughan. 
Lewis Patchin. 
Thos. H. Armstrong. 
Daniel Caswell. 



NICOLLET COUNTY. 
Eureka .... Edwin Clark. 

Hilo William Dupray. 

Saint Peter . . George Hezlep. 
Travers des Sioux William Uuey. 

OLMSTEAD COUNTY. 

Durango . . . Samuel Brink. 

K.almar .... James A. Blair. 

Oronoco .... Samuel P. Hicks. 

Pleasant Grove . Samuel Barrows. 



POST OFFICES AND I'OSTM ASTERS. 



1113 



Post Office. Postmaster, 

OLMSTEAD COUNTY. 

Rochester . . . Piiineas II. Durfel. 

Salem .... Cyrus Holt. 

Springfield . . Almon II. Smith. 

Waterloo . . . Robert S. Latta. 

Zambro .... Lucy Cobb. 

PEMBINA COUNTY. 



Cap I/ake . . 
Pembina . . 
Red I^ake . . 
Saint Joseph's 



David B. Spencer. 
Joseph Rolette. 
Sela G. Wright. 
George A. Bolcourt. 



PIERCE COUNTY. 
Fort Ridgeley . . Benjn. II. Randall. 
PINE COUNTY. 



Alhambra 
■Nlille Lac 



Herman Trott. 
JIark Leadbetter. 



RAMSEY COUNTY. 

Anoka .... Arthur Davis. 

Centreville . . Charles Pettin. 

C'llumbus . . . John Klerman. 

Howard's Lake . John P. Howard. 

Litt'.e Canada . Walter B. Boyd. 

Maniimine . . . Josepli A. Willis. 

Otter Lake . . Ross Wilkinson. 

Red Rock . . . Giles II. Fowler. 
St. Anthony's Falls Norton II. Ilemiup. 

St. Paul . . . Charles S. Cave. 



RICE COUNTY. 



Caiinon City 
Faribault . 
Medford 
Morristown 
Northfield . 
Shieldsville 
Union l>ake 
Waleott . . 



C. Smith House. 
Alexander Faribault. 
Smith Johnson. 
Walter Norris. 
Calvin S. Short. 
Joshua Tufts. 
Henry M. Humphrey 
Joseph Ricliardsou. 



SAINT LOUIS COUNTY. 

Falls of St. Louis Joseph Y. Buckner. 
Oneota .... Edmund F. Ely. 
Twin Lakes . . George W. Perry. 

SCOTT COUNTY. 



Belle Plaine . 
Louisville . . 
Mount Pleasant 
New Dublin . 
Sand Creek . 
Shak-a-pay . 



Nahum Stone. 
Joseph R. Ashley. 
John Soules. 
Dominiek McDermott 
William Holmes. 
Reubeu INI. Wright. 



SIBLEY COUNTY. 
Henderson . . Henry Poehler. 



Prairie Mound 



Morgan Lace v. 



STEARNS COUNTY. 

Clinton .... John II. Linneman. 
Neenah .... Henry B. Johnson. 
Saint Cloud . . Joseph Edelbrook. 

/Ronbcn M. Ri.-i ard- 
■ ■ ' ■ ( son. 

17 



Post Office. 



Postmaster. 



Torah 



STEELE COUNTY. 



Adamsville 
Aurora . . 
Dodge City 
Ell wood 
Josco . . . 
Lomond . . 
Owatana 
St. Mary's . 
Swavesej' . 
Wilton . . 



Hiram Pitcher. 
Charles Adsit. 
John Coburn. 
Wilber F. Fisko. 
James Ilanes. 
Abram Fitzsimmons. 
Samuel B. Smith. 
Horatio B. Morrison. 
Andrew J. Bell. 
David J. Jenkins. 



SUPERIOR COUNTY. 
Beaver Bay . . Robert McLean. 
French River. . F. W. Watrous. 
Grand Marias . Richard Godfrev. 
Grand Portage . II. II. McCullongh. 

AVAR ASH AW COUNTY. 



Greenville . . 
Independence 

Lake City . . 

Mazeppa . . 
Minneska . 
JNlinnesota City 
Mount Vernon 
Reed's Landing 
Waliashaw 
West Newton 



Cottage Grove 
l.,ake Land 
INLirine ^Mills . 
.Milton Mills . 
Point Douglas: 
Stillwater . . 



Rodman Benchard. 

Selh I>. JlcCarty. 
/Harvey F. William- 
I, son. 

John E. Hvdo. 

Nathaniel F. Tifft. 

Samuel E. Cotton. 

Steplien .M. Burns. 

Fordyce S. Ricliard. 

J. F. Byrne. 

Austin R. Swan. 

WAIINATAII COUNTY. 

Fort Ripley . . Solon W. Manney. 

WASHINGTON COUNTY. 

Stephen F. Douglass. 
Freeman C. Tyler. 
Orange Walker. 
Lemuel Bolles. 
R. R. Henry. 
Harley Curtis. 



WINON 

Dacota .... 
Eagle Bluffs . . 
Homer .... 
New Boston . . 
Kichmond . . . 
Ridge way . . . 
Saint Charles 
Saratoga . . . 
Stockton . . - 
Twin Grove . . 

Utica 

Warren .... 
AVinona .... 
White Water Falh 



A COUNTY. 

Nathan Brown. 
William \V. Bennett. 
John A. Torre v. 
William .H Dwight. 
Samuel C. Dick. 
Joseph Cooper. 
Lewis H. Springer. 
Thomas P. Dixon. 
William C. Dodge. 
Oren Cravath. 
J.din W. Bentlej-, 
Eben B. Jewett. 
John W. Downer. 
iJIiles Pease. 



WRIGHT COUNTY. 



Berlin . . 
Buftalo . . 
Clear Water 
M'lnticcllo . 
Northwood . 
R)/kford . 
Si.ver Creek 



Charles W. Lambert. 

Amasa Acklcy. 

Simon Stevens. 

U. Fox. 

A. H. Kelly. 

Joel Florida. 

Abram G. Oesoent. 



II. 
LIST OF LAND OFFICES AND OFFICERS 

IN MINNESOTA. 



General Land Office, 

December 8, 1856. 

Sir: Your two letters of the 6tli instant, asking for a list of the 
land offices in Minnesota Territory, with the names of tho officers 
connected therewith, — also the number of acres sold, and the amount 
of fees received by such officers, during the fiscal year, ending 30th 
June, 1856, have been received. 

In reply, I herewith enclose a statement of the information 
desired, save that the amount of fees for the fiscal year cannot bo 
stated. 

Very respectfully, 

Thomas A. Hendricks, 

Co mm issioner. 
C. C. Andrews, Esq. 



(194) 





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(195) 



III. 
LIST OF NEWSPAPERS PUBLISHED 

IN MINNESOTA. 



Pioneer and Democrat . . St. Paul 

MiXNESOTIAN St. Paul 

Times St. Paul 

Financial Advertiser ... St. Paul 

Union Stillwater 

Messenger Stillwater 

Express St. Anthony 

Republican St. Anthony 

Democrat Minneapolis 

Frontiersman Sauk Rapids 

Northern Herald .... Watab 

Independent Shakopee 

Republican Shakopeo 

Democrat Henderson 

Courier St. Peter 

Dakota Journal Hastings 

Sentinel Red AVing 

Gazette Canon Falls 



Daily and Weekly 
Daily and AVeekly 
Daily and Weekly 
Weekly 
Weekly 
Weekly 
Weekly 
Weekly 
Weekly 
Weekly 
W^eekly 
Weekly 
Weekly 
Weekly 
Weekly 
Weekly 
Weekly 
Weekly 
(196) 



NEWSPAPERS PUBLISHED IN MINNESOTA. 



107 



Journal Wabashaw 

Argus . Winona . 

Republican AViuona . 

Southern Herald .... Brownsville 

Carimona 

Democrat Cbatfield 

Republican Cbatfield 

Rice County Herald . . . Faribault 
St. Cloud 



OwATONiA Watchman and Re 
GISTER 



I Ow 



atonia 



Weekly 
Weekly 
Weekly 
Weekly 
Weekly 
AVeekly 
Weekly 
Weekly 
Weekly 

Weekly 



17* 



IV. 



TABLE OF DISTANCES. 



TABLE OF DISTANCES FROM ST. PAUL. 



To St. Anthony 

Rice Creek 

St. Francis, or Rum River 

Itasca 

Elk River 

Big Lake . . 

Big Meadow (Sturgis) 

St. Cloud (Sauk Rapids) 

Watab 

Little Rock 

Platte River 

Swan River 

Little Falls 

Belle Prairie 

Fort Ripley 

Crow Wing River 

Sandy Lake 

Savannah Portage 

Across the Portage 

Down Savannah River to St 

Fond-du-Lac 

Lake Superior 

Crow Wing River 
Otter Tail Lake 



Louis River 



81 




7 


151 


9 


25 


7 


32 


6 


38 


10 


48 


18 


66 


10 


76 


6 


82 


2 


84 


12 


96 


10 


106 


3 


109 


5 


114 


10 


124 


6 


130 


120 


250 


15 


265 


5 


270 


20 


290 


60 


350 


22 


372 


130 




70 


200 


(198) 





TABLE OF DISTANCES. 



199 



Rice River 
Sand Hills River 
Grand Fork, Red River 
Pembina 



Sandy Lake 
Leech Lake 
Red Lake . 
Pembrina 

Stillwater 
Areola 
Marine Mills 
Falls St. Croix 
Pokagema 
Fond-du-Lac 
Red Rock 
Point Douglass 
Red Wins 



Winona's Rock, Lake Pepin 

Wabashaw 

Prairie du Chien 

Cassville 

Peru 

Dubuque 

Mouth of Fever River 

Rock Island 

Burlington 

Keokuk 

St. Louis 

Cairo . . 

New Orleans 

Mendota 

Black Dog Village 

Sixe's Village 

Traverse des Sioux 

Little Rock 

Lac Qui Parle 



M1L.E3 


74 


274 


70 


340 


40 


380 


80 


460 


250 




150 


400 


80 


480 


150 


630 


18 




5 


23 


6 


29 


19 


48 


40 


88 


75 


164 


6 




24 




30 


60 


30 


90 


145 


235 


29 


264 


21 


285 


8 


293 


17 


310 


52 


362 


135 


497 


53 


550 


179 


729 


172 


901 


1040 


1941 


7 




4 




21 




50 




45 




80 





200 MINNESOTA AND DACOTAH. 

MILE3 

Big Stone Lake 66 

Fort Pierce, on Missouri ...... 240 

TABLE OF DISTANCES FROM ST. CLOUD. 

To Minneapolis 62 

Superior City, on Brott and Wilson's Road . . . .120 

Traverse des Sioux 70 

Henderson 60 

Fort Ridgley 100 

Long Prairie 40 

Otter Tail Lake 60 

The Salt Springs 120 

Fort Ripley 60 

Mille Lac City 60 

DISTANCES FROM CROW WING. 

To Chippeway Mission 15 

Ojibeway 50 

Superior City 80 

Otter Tail City . • 60 

St. Cloud 55 



PART IV. 
PREEMPTION FOR CITY OR TOWN SITES. 



(201) 



PREEMPTION FOR CITY OR TOWN SITES. 



At a late moment, and while the volume is in 
press, I am enabled to present the following exposi- 
tion of the Preemption Law, addressed to the Sec- 
retary of the Interior by Mr. Attorney-General 
Gushing. (See "Opinions of Attorneys General," 
vol. 7, 733-743— in press.) 

PREEMPTION FOR CITY OR TOWN SITES. 

Portions of the public lands, to the amount of three hundred and 
twenty acres, may be taken up by individuals or precmptioners for 
city or town sites. 

The same rules as to proof of occupation apply in the case of muni- 
cipal, as of agricultural, preemption. 

The statute assumes that the purposes of a city or town have prefer- 
ence over those of trade or of agriculture. 

Attorney General's Office, 

July 2, 185G. 
Sir: Your communication of the 20th May, transmitting 
papers regarding Superior City (so called) in the State of 
Wisconsin, submits for consideration three precise questions 
of law ; two of them presenting inquiry of the legal rela- 
tions of locations for town sites on the public domain, and 
the third presenting inquiry of another matter, which, although 
pertinent to the case, yet is comprehended in a perfectly dis- 
tinct class of legal relations. 

(203) 



204 MINNESOTA AND DACOTAII. 

I propose, in this communication, to reply only upon the two 
first questions. 

The act of Congress of April 24, 1841, entitled " An act 
to appropriate the proceeds of the sales of the public lands 
and to grant preemption rights,'^ contains, in section 10th, 
the following provisions : " no lands reserved for the support 
of schools, nor lands acquired by either of the two last trea- 
ties with the jNIiami tribe of Indians in the State of Indiana, 
or which may be acquired of the Wyandot tribe of Indians 
in the State of Ohio, or other Indian reservation to which the 
title has been or may be extinguished by the United States 
at any time during the operation of this act ; no sections of 
lands reserved to the United States alternate to other sections 
of land granted to any of the States for the construction of 
any canal, railroad, or other public improvement ; no sections 
or fractions of sections included within the limits of any 
incorporated town ; no portions of the public lands which 
have been selected for the site of a city or town ; no parcel 
of a lot of land actually settled or occupied for the purposes 
of trade and not agriculture ; and no lands on which are 
situated any known salines or mines, shall be liable to entry 
under or by virtue of this act." (v Stat, at Large, p. 45G.) 

An act passed May 23, 1844, entitled " An act for the relief 
of citizens of towns upon the lands of the United States under 
certain circumstances," provides as follows : 

" That whenever any portion of the surveyed public lands 
has been or shall be settled upon and occupied as a town 
site, and therefore not subject to entry under the existing 
preemption laws, it shall be lawful, in case such town or place 
shall be incorporated, for the corporate authorities thereof, 
and if not incorporated, for the judges of the county court for 
the (bounty in which such town may be situated, to enter at 
the proper land office, and at the minimum price, the land so 
settled and occupied, in trust for the several use and benefit 
of the several occupants thereof, according to their respective 
interests; the execution of which trust, as to tlie disposal of 
tlip lots in said town, and the proceeds of the sales thereof, 



IMIK-EMPTION roil CITY OR TOWN SITES. 20') 

to be conducted under such rules and regulations as may ho 
prescribed by the legislative authority of the state or terri- 
tory in Avhich the same is situated : Provided, that the entry 
of the land intended by this act be made pri(;r to tlie com- 
mencement of a public sale of the Ixxly of land in which it 
is included, and that the entr}^ shall include only such land 
as is actually occupied Ijy the town, and be made in confor- 
mity to the legal subdivisions of the public lands authorized 
by the act of the twenty-fourth of April, one thousand eight 
hundred and twenty, and shall not in the whole exceed three 
hundred and twenty acres ; and Provided also, that the act 
of the said trustees, not made in conformity to the rules and 
regulations herein alluded to, shall be void and of none 
effect:" * * * (v Stat, at Large, p. G87.) 

Upon which statutes you present the following questions 
of construction: "1st. What is the legal signification to be 
given to the words, ' portions of the public lands which have 
been selected as the site fur a city or town,' which occur in 
the preemption law of 18-11, and which portions of the pub- 
lic lands are by said act exempted from its provisions ? Do 
they authorize selections by individuals with a view to the 
]>uilding thereon of a city or town, or do they contemplate a 
selection made by authority of some special law? 

" Do the words in the act of 23d May, 1844, ' and that the 
entry shall include only such land as is actually occupied by 
the town,' restrict the entry to those* quarter quarter-sections, 
or forty acre subdivisions, alone, on which houses have been 
erected as part of said town, or do they mean, only, that the 
entry shall not embrace any land not shown by the survey 
on the ground, or the plat of the town, to be occupied thereby, 
and not to exceed 320 acres, which is to be taken by legal 
subdivisions, according to the public survey, and to what 
species of 'legal subdivisions' is reference made in said act 
of 1844?" 

These questions, as thus presented by you, are a])stract 
questions of law, — namely, of the construction of statutes. 
18 



200 MINNESOTA AND DACOTAII. 

They are distinctly and clearly stated, so as not to require of 
me any investigation of external facts to render them more 
intelligible. Nor do they require of me to attempt to make 
application of them to any actual case, conflict of right, or 
controversy either between private individuals or such indi- 
viduals and the Government. 

It is true that, accompanying your communication, there 
is a great mass of representations, depositions, arguments, and 
other papers, which show that the questions propounded by 
you are not speculative ones, and that, on the contrary, they 
bear, in some way, on matters of interest, public or private, 
to be decided by the Department. But those are matters for 
you, not for me, to determine. You have requested my opi- 
nion of certain points of law, to be used by you, so far as 
you see fit, in aid of such your own determination. I am 
thus happily relieved of the task of examining and under- 
taking to analyze the voluminous documents in the case: more 
especially as your questions, while precise and complete in 
themselves, derive all needful illustration from the very 
instructive report in the case of the present Commissioner 
of Public Lands and the able brief on the subject drawn up 
in your Department. 

I. To return to the questions before me : the first is in sub- 
stance whether the words in the act of 1841, — " portions of 
the public land which have been selected as the site for a city 
or a town," — are to be confined to cases of such selection in 
virtue of some special authority, or by some official authority? 

I think not, for the following reasons : 

The statute does not by any words of legal intendment 
say so. 

The next preceding clause of the act, which speaks of lands 
" included within the limits of any incorporated town," 
implies the contrary, in making separate provision for a town- 
ship existing by special or public authority. 

The next succeeding clause, -which speaks of land " actually 
settled or occupied for the purposes of trade and not agricul- 



PRE-EMPTION FOR CITY OR TOWN SITES. 207 

tare," leads to the same conclusion ; for why should selection 
for a town site require special authority any more than occu- 
pation for the purposes of trade ? 

The general scope of the act has the same tendency. Its 
general object is to regulate, in behalf of individuals, the acqui- 
sition of the public domain by preemption, after voluntary 
occupation for a certain period of time, and under other pre- 
scribed circumstances. In doing this, it gives a preference 
preemption to certain other uses of the public land, by ex- 
cluding such land from liability to ordinary preemption. 
Among the uses thus privileged, and to which precedence in 
preemption is accorded, are, 1. '* Sections, or fractions of 
sections included within the limits of any incorporated town ;'^ 
2. " Portions of the public land which have been selected for 
the site of a city or town ;" and, 3. " Land actually settled 
or occupied for the purposes of trade, and not agriculture." 
Now, it is not easy to see any good reason why, if individuals 
may thus take voluntarily for the purposes of agriculture, — 
they may not also take for the purposes of a city or town. 
The statute assumes that the purposes of a city or town have 
preference over those of trade, and still more over those of 
agriculture. Yet individuals may take for either of the latter 
objects : a fortiori they may take for a city or town. 

Why should it be assumed that individual action in this 
respect is prohibited for towns any more than for trade or 
agriculture ? It does not concern the Government whether 
two persons preempt one hundred and sixty acres each for the 
purposes of agriculture, or for the purpose of a town, except 
that the latter object will, incidentally, be more beneficial to 
the Government. Nor is there any other consideration of 
public policy to induce the Government to endeavor to dis- 
courage the formation of towns. Why, then, object to indi- 
viduals taking up a given quantity of land in one case rather 
than in the other ? 

Finally, the act of 1844 definitively construes the act of 1841, 
and proves that the " selection" for town sites there spoken 



208 MI^'NESOTA A'SD DACOTAII. 

of may ]>c cither Ijy public authority or by individuals: — 
that the word is for that reason designedly general, and with- 
out qualification, but must be fixed by occupation. That act 
supposes public land to be "settled upon and occupied as a 
tOAYn site," and " therefore" not subject to entry under the 
existing preemption laws. This description identifies it with 
the land " selected for the site of a city or town," in the pre- 
vious act. It limits the quantity so to be selected, that is, 
settled or occupied, to three hundred and twenty acres, and 
otherwise regulates the selection as hereinafter explained. 
It then provides how such town site is to be entered and 
patented. If the town be incorporated, then the entry is to 
be made h}^ its corporate authorities. If the town be not 
incorporated, then it may be entered in the name of the judges 
of the county court of the county, in which the projected 
town lies, " in trust for the several use and benefit of the 
several occupants thereof, according to their respective inte- 
rests." Here we have express recognition of voluntary selec- 
tion and occupancy by individuals, and provision for means by 
which legal title in their behalf may be acquired and patented. 
I am aware that by numerous statutes anterior to the act 
of 1841, provision is made for the authoritative selection of 
town sites in special cases ; but such provisions do by no 
means exclude or contradict the later enactment of a general 
provision of law to comprehend all cases of selections for 
town sites, whether authoritative or voluntary. I think the 
act of 1841, construed in the light of the complementary act 
of 1844, as it must be, provides clearly for both contingencies 
or conditions of the subject. Among the anterior acts, how- 
ever, is one of great importance and significancy upon this 
point, more especially as that act received exposition at the 
time from the proper departments of the Government. I 
allude to the act of June 22d, 1838, entitled " An act to grant 
preemption rights to settlers on the public lands." This act, 
like that of 1841, contains a provision reserving certain lands 
from ordinary preemption, among which are : 



PRE-EMPTION FOR CITY OR TOWN SITES. 209 

" Any portions of public lands, surveyed or otherwise, 
which have been actually selected as sites for cities or towns, 
lotted into smaller quantities than eighty acres, and settled 
upon and occupied for the purposes of trade, and not of agri- 
cultural cultivation and improvement, or any land specially 
occupied or reserved for town lots, or other purposes, by autho- 
rity of the United States." (v Stat, at Large, p. 251.) 

Here the " selection'^ generally, and the " selection" by 
authority are each provided for eo nomine. It is obvious that 
the provision in the latter case is made for certainty only ; 
since, by the general rules of statute construction, no ordi- 
nary claim of preemption could attach to reservations made 
by authority of the United States. The eiiective provision 
in the enactment quoted, must be selections not made by the 
authority of the United States. 

In point of fact the provision Avas construed by the Depart- 
ment to include all voluntary selections : lands, says the circu- 
lar of the General Land Office of July 3, 1838, " which set- 
tlers have selected with a view of building thereon a village 
or city." 

It seems to me that the same considerations which induced 
tliis consti'uction of the word " selection" in the act of 1838, 
dictate a similar construction of the same word in the subse- 
quent act. Besides which, when a word or words of a sta- 
tute, which were of uncertain signification originally, but 
which have been construed by the proper authority, are re- 
peated in a subsequent statute, that is understood as being 
not a repetition merely of the word with the received con- 
struction, but an implied legislative adoption even of such 
construction. 

II. The second question is of the construction of the act 
of 1844, supplemental to that of 1841 ; and as the construc- 
tion of the elder derives aid from the language of the later 
one, so does that of the latter from the former. The question 
is divisible into sub-questions. 

1. Does the phrase " that the entry (fur a town-site) shall 



210 MINNESOTA AND DACOTAH. 

include only such land as is actually occupied by the town," 
restrict the entry to those quarter quarter-sections, or forty 
acre subdivisions alone, on which houses have been erected 
as part of said town ? 

2. What is the meaning of the phrase in the act " legal 
subdivisions of the public lands," in " conformity" with which 
the entry must be made ? 

I put the two acts together and find that they provide for 
a system of preemptions for, among other things, agricultural 
occupation, commercial or mechanical occupation, and muni- 
cipal occupation. 

In regard to agricultural occupation, the laws provide that, 
in certain cases and conditions, one person may preempt one 
hundred and sixty acres, and that in regard to municipal 
occupation a plurality of persons may, in certain cases and 
conditions, preempt three hundred and twenty acres. In the 
latter contingency, there is no special privilege as to quan- 
tity, but a disability rather ; for two persons together may 
preempt three hundred and twenty acres by agricultural occu- 
pation, and afterwards convert the land into a town site, and 
four persons together might in the same way secure six hun- 
dred and forty acres, to be converted ultimately into the site 
of a town ; while the same four persons, selecting laud for 
a town site, can take only three hundred and twenty acres. 
In both forms the parties enter at the minimum price of the 
public lands. The chief advantage which the preemptors 
for municipal purposes enjoy, is, that they have by statute a 
preference over agricultural preemptors, the land selected 
for a town site being secured by statute against general and 
ordinary, that is, agricultural preemption. In all other res- 
pects material to the present inquiry, we may assume, for the 
argum.ent's sake at least, that the two classes stand on «a 
footing of equality, as respects either the conflicting interests 
of third persons, or the rights of the Government. 

Now, the rights of an agricultural preemptor we under- 
stand. He is entitled, if he shall " make a settlement in per- 



PRE-EMPTION FOR CITY OR TOWN SITES. 211 

son on the public lands," and " shall inhabit and improve 
the same, and shall erect a dwelling thereon," to enter, " by 
legal subdivisions, any number of acres not exceeding one 
hundred and sixty, or a quarter-section of land, to include 
the residence of such claimant." (Act of 1841, s. 10.) And 
of two settlers on " the same quarter-section of land," the 
earlier one is to have the preference. (Sec. ]1.) 

Now, was it ever imagined that such claimant must per- 
sonally inhabit every quarter quarter-section of his claim ? 
That he must have under cultivation every quarter quarter- 
section ? That he must erect a dwelling on every quarter 
quarter-section ? And that, if he failed to do this, any such 
quarter of his quarter-section might be preempted by a later 
occupant ? 

There is no pretension that such is the condition of the 
ordinary preemptor, and that he is thus held to inhabit, to 
cultivate, to dwell on, every quarter quarter-section, under 
penalty of having it seized by another preemptor, or entered 
in course by any public or private purchaser. He is to pro- 
vide, accordino; to the regulations of the Land Office or other- 
wise, indicia, by which the limits of his claim shall be 
known, — he must perform acts of possession or intended 
ownership on the land, as notice to others ; and that suffices 
to secure his rights under the statute. It is not necessary 
for him to cultivate every separate quarter of his quarter- 
section ; it is not necessary for him even to enclose each ; it 
(»r.ly needs that in good faith he take possession, with inten- 
tion of occupation and settlement, and proceed in good faith 
to occupy and settle, in such time and in such manner, as 
belong to the nature of agricultural occupation and settlement. 

Why should there be a different rule in regard to occupants 
for municipal preemption ? The latter is, by the very tenor 
of the law, the preferred object. Why should those interested 
in it be subject to special disabilities of competing occupancy ? 
I cannot conceive. 

It is obvious that, in municipal settlement, as well as agri- 



212 MINNESOTA AND DACOTAII. 

cultural, there must be space of time between the commence- 
ment and the consummation of occupation. There will be a 
moment, when the equitable right of the agricultural settler 
is fixed, although he have as yet done nothing more in the 
way of inhabiting or improving than to cut a tree or drive a 
stake into the earth. And it may be long before he improves 
each one of all his quarter quarter-sections. So, in princi- 
ple, it is in the case of settlement for a town. We must 
deal with such things according to their nature. Towns do 
not spring into existence consummate and complete. Nor 
do they commence with eight houses, systematically distri- 
buted, each in the centre of a forty-acre lot. And in the 
case of a town settlement of three hundred and twenty acres, 
as well as that of a farm site of one hundred and sixty acres, 
all which can be lawfully requisite to communicate to the 
occupants the right of preemption to the block of land, in- 
cluding every one of its quarter quarter-sections, — is improve- 
ment, or indication of the improvement of the entire block, — 
acts of possession or use regarding it, consonant with the 
nature of the thing. That, in a farm, will be the erection 
of a house and outhouses, cultivation, and use of pasturage 
or woodland : in a town, it will be erecting houses or shops, 
platting out the land, grading or opening streets, and the like 
signs and marks of occupation or special destination. 

The same considerations lead to the conclusion that it would 
not be just to confine the proofs of occupation to facts existing 
at its very incipiency. The inchoate or equitable right, as 
against all others, begins from the beginning of the occupa- 
tion: the ultimate suflBciency of that occupation is to be 
determined in part by subsequent facts, which consummate 
the occupation, and also demonstrate its bona Jides. If it 
were otherwise, there would be an end of all the advantage 
expressly given by the statute to priority of occupation. Take 
the case of agricultural preemptions for example. A settler 
enters in good faith upon a quarter-section for preemption ; 
his entry, at first, attaches physically to no more than the 



PRE-EMPTION FOR CITY Oil TOWN SITES. 213 

rood of land on ■wliich he is commencing to construct a 
habitation. Is that entry confined in effect to a single quarter 
quarter? Can other settlers, the next day, enter upon all 
the adjoining quarter quarters, and thus limit the first settler 
to the single quarter quarter on which his dwelling is com- 
menced? Is all proof of occupation in his case, when he 
comes to prove up his title, to be confined to acts anterior to 
the date of conflict? Clearly not. The inelioate title of the 
first occupant ripens into a complete one by tno series of acts 
on his part subsequent to the original occupatiu:i. 

In the statement of the case prepared in your office, it is 
averred that numerous precedents exist in the Land Office, 
not only of the allowance of town preemptions as the volun- 
tary selection of individuals, but also of the application to 
such preemption claims of the ordinary construction of the 
word " occupation'^ habitually applied to agricultural pre- 
emption claims. That is to say, it has been the practice of 
the Government, not to consider municipal occupation "cir- 
cumscribed by the forty-acre subdivisions actually built upon ; 
^ * but that such occupation was (sufficiently) evidenced, 
either by an actual survey, upon the ground, of said town into 
streets, alleys, and blocks, or the publication of a plat of the 
same evidencing the connection therewith of the public sur- 
veys, so as to give notice to others of the extent of the tOAvn 
site :" all this, within the extreme limits, of course, of the 
three hundred and twenty acres prescribed by the statute. 

I think the practice of the Land Office in this respect, as 
thus reported, is lawful and proper: it being understood, of 
course, that thus the acts of alleged selection, possession, and 
occupation are performed in perfect good faith. 

Something is hinted, in the report of the commissioner, as 
to the speculation- character of the proposed town settlement, 
— and, in the official brief accompanying your letter, as to the 
gpeculation-characterof the proposed agi'icultural preemption. 
I suppose it must be so, if the land in question has peculiar 
aptitude for municipal uses. But how is that material? The 



21-1: MINNESOTA AND DACOTAH. 

olyect, in either mode of attaining it, is a lawful one. Two 
persons may lawfully preempt a certain quantity of land 
under the general law, and intend a town site without saying 
so; or they may preempt avouiedly for a town site. As 
between the two courses, both having the same ultimate des- 
tination, it would not seem that there could be any cause of 
objection to the more explicit one. 

So much for the first branch of the second question. As 
to the second branch of it, the same line of reasoning leads 
to equally satisfiictory results. 

The municipal preemptor, like the agricultural preemptor, 
is required to take his land in conformity with " the legal sub- 
divisions of the public lands." I apprehend the import of the 
requirement is the same in both cases. Neither class of pre- 
emptors is to break the legal subdivisions as surveyed. The 
preemptor of either case may take fractional sections if he 
will, but he is in every case to run his extreme lines with the 
lines of the surveyed subdivisions. In fine, as it seems to me, 
there is nothing of the present case, in so far as appears by 
the questions presented, and the official reports and statement 
by which they are explained, except a conflict of claim to 
two or three sectional subdivisions of land between different 
sets of preemptors, one set being avowed municipal preemp- 
tors, and the other professed agricultural preemptors, but 
both sets having in reality the same ulterior purposes in regard 
to the use of the land. The Government has no possible con- 
cern in the controversy, except to deal impartially between 
the parties according to law. The agricultural preemptors 
contend that difierent rules of right as to the power of indi- 
vidual or private occupation, and as to the criteria of valid 
occupation, appl}^ to them, as against their adversaries. The 
municipal preemptors contend that the same rules of equal 
right, inceptive and progressive, in these respects, apply to 
both classes of preemptors. I think that the latter view of 
the law is correct, according to its letter, its spirit, and the 
settled practice of the Government. 



PRE-EMPTION FOR CITY OR TOWN SITES. 215 

The investigation of the facts of the case, and the applica- 
tion of the law to the facts, are, of course, duties of your 
Department. 

I leave here the first and second questions ; and, proposing 
to reply at an early day on the third question, 
I have the honor to be, very respectfully, 

C. GUSHING. 

lion. Robert McClelland, 

Secretary of the Interior, 



THE END. 



- ADVERTISEMENT. 

THE OFFICIAL OPINIONS OF THE ATTORNEYS GENERAL 
OF THE UNITED STATES. Edited by C. C. Andrews. Esq. 
Volume VII. (Svo.) now ready. Washington : Published by R. 
Farnham. 

" In this series the proudest names of American law hare found some appro- 
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political and legal literature." — National Intelligencer. 

A TREATISE ON THE REVENUE LAWS OF THE UNITED 
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to be published by Little, Brown and Company. See their list of 
new Law BooliS.) 

REFLECTIONS ON THE OPERATION OF THE PRESENT 
SYSTEM OF EDUCATION. By C. C. Andrews, Esq. Boston: 
Crosby, Nichols and Company : 1853. 

"The substance of the pamphlet appeared sometime .since in a monthly 
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nent form. Ills views are sensible, and well deserve attention." — Boston Daily 
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'•This contribution to the cause of common school education is highly 
creditable to the author, and we have no doubt, if it can be extensively circu- 
lated, will be productive of very beneficial results." — Christian Witness. 



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